It’s been rumoured for a while now, and it has just been made official: Daniel Craig will be playing journalist Mikael Blomkvist in David Fincher’s adaptation of hit Swedish thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And according to Deadline, he hasn’t just locked in a deal for the first movie – he’s got options for the sequels, which should they happen, will be based on follow-up books The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest.

It’ll mean the start of a busy period for the actor, who right now is busy riding horses and battling nasty space invaders in Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens. The minute he finishes that, he’ll be whipped off to Sweden to start work on Dragon Tattoo. Floating around in the ether like a crazed ghost, of course, is the spectre of the latest Bond film, which is still trapped in indefinite limbo by the financial frustrations of MGM. At Comic-Con, Craig said he didn’t have anything new to offer on that one, only that he really wants to get going on it. If wishes were horses, Mr C…

Fincher, meanwhile, is putting the finishing touches to birth-of-Facebook drama The Social Network and is busy hunting around for a girl to fill to iconic central Dragon role of bisexual goth punk researcher Lisbeth Salander. The candidate list has sprawled between the likes of Ellen Page, Emily Browning, Mia Wasikowska, Sara Snook, Rooney Mara and Sophie Lowe. While Natalie Portman has now gone on record to say she has yet to be approached, whoever wins will need to brush up on their Swedish accent. Already eliminated from consideration: Seth Rogen in his Paul motion capture suit doing a funny accent.

Featuring a script from Steven Zaillian, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is scheduled for December in the US, and we expect it either day-and-date or early in 2012 over here.