Fede Alvarez has revealed there was "a lot of debate" when he asked to cast Claire Foy as his leading lady in the forthcoming movie ‘Girl in the Spider’s Web’.
The 34-year-old actress will play the role of Lisbeth Salander in the 2018 flick but the director has admitted there was a lot of arguments at first because producers were thinking about bringing back Rooney Mara – who portrayed the part in 2011’s ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ – until he demanded that he have a complete new cast.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the 40-year-old director said: "There was a lot of debate — but not with me — mostly debate among the studio, if they [were] taking that route or not. Eventually, I think it was me coming in, saying, I preferred to have my own cast. As a director, I just didn’t like the idea of taking someone else’s cast. As much as I admired [David] Fincher [who directed the 2011 instalment] as a filmmaker I think Rooney Mara is Fincher’s Lisbeth, right? I wanted to find my own."
However, Alvarez didn’t just settle with ‘The Crown’ star as other big names – including Scarlett Johansson – were thrown about until he made up his mind.
He previously said: "I couldn’t be more thrilled about Claire taking the reins of the iconic Lisbeth Salander. Claire is an incredible, rare talent who will inject a new and exciting life into Lisbeth. I can’t wait to bring this new story to a worldwide audience."
Filming for the movie kicked off in January in Berlin and Stockholm but the team have had to work really hard as it was given the release date of November 9, 2018.
The follow up to the mystery movie, which will be based on novel of the same name penned by David Lagercrantz, is backed by Sony pictures’ Millennium franchise.
‘The Girl in the Spider’s Web’ will mark the first movie in the series to be adapted into an English-language film first.
Claire Foy’s casting in Girl in the Spider’s Web caused ‘debate’
