'Mindhunter' Breakout Cameron Britton Joins 'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' Sequel
David Fincher may not be involved with the sequel to his 2011 thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but an actor he recently worked with is. Cameron Britton, who delivered a show-stopping performance as serial killer Ed Kemper on Fincher's Netflix series Mindhunter, has joined the The Girl in the Spider's Web, a follow-up to Dragon Tattoo. More details on the Dragon Tattoo sequel cast await you below.
Cameron Britton gave one of the year's most memorable performances in the addictive Netflix series Mindhunter. As the talkative, polite yet terrifying serial killer Ed Kemper, Britton brought a sort of laid back, likable menace that instantly caught the viewer's attention. It's the type of performance that should lead to bigger things, and that seems to be the case now, as Variety reports Britton has joined the cast of The Girl in the Spider's Web. The film is a sequel (and kind of a reboot) of David Fincher's 2011 thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Fincher's high profile remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, adapted from the hit novel by Stieg Larsson, did very well at the box office, grossing $232.6 million during its theatrical run (via Box Office Mojo). Yet despite the success of the film, a sequel that would reunite Fincher with actors Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig never materialized. Now, the series is being relaunched with the sequel The Girl in the Spider's Web, from Don't Breathe director Fede Álvarez. The Crown's Claire Foy is stepping into Rooney Mara's role of Lisbeth Salander, the troubled yet brilliant computer hacker who keeps getting involved with dangerous situations. The Square actor Claes Bang will be portraying the film's villain. Britton will be playing a computer expert who is a close associate of Foy's character.
Interestingly enough, The Girl in the Spider's Web is not the Stieg Larsson novel that originally followed Dragon Tattoo; that would be The Girl Who Played with Fire. The Girl in the Spider's Web was actually written after Larsson's death, by David Lagercrantz. Here's the book's official synopsis:
A genius hacker who has always been an outsider. A journalist with a penchant for danger. She is Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. He is Mikael Blomkvist, crusading editor of Millennium. One night, Blomkvist receives a call from a source who claims to have been given information vital to the United States by a young female hacker. Blomkvist, always on the lookout for a story, reaches out to Salander for help. She, as usual, has plans of her own. Together they are drawn into a ruthless underworld of spies, cybercriminals, and government operatives—some willing to kill to protect their secrets.
While Foy is great, Álvarez is a talented filmmaker, and I'm excited to see Britton start landing roles in big movies, I can't help but wish Fincher had been able to make a proper sequel to Dragon Tattoo with his original cast. Fincher had planned to film two sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, back to back, and star Rooney Mara was keen to return. But script problems sidetracked things, and Fincher and company eventually moved on to other projects. That said, I'm hopeful this new take on the material will deliver.
The Girl in the Spider's Web opens October 5, 2018.