Despite gaining plenty of critical acclaim and taking in a healthy $233 million worldwide in 2011, there hasn't been any movement lately on a sequel to David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The project was based on the first of author Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy books, which were followed by The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. There has been plenty of talk over the past few years about whether or not The Girl Who Played with Fire would ever move forward, but now we have a new report from The Hollywood Reporter indicating the sequel may very well happen, although without director David Fincher.

The new interest in getting a sequel off the ground comes from the recent announcement that Knopf is publishing a new Millennium series novel entitled Spider's Web, written by David Lagercrantz. While this new entry was not written by the late Millennium trilogy author Stieg Larsson, the story does continue the exploits of hacker Lisbeth Salander, who was played by Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Knopf's announcement sent fans into a frenzy, with over 500,000 copies of the book to be made available in the U.S. alone for a global release on September 1. The response to this new book is what has Sony interested in moving forward with their theatrical franchise.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Sony is now considering combining both The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest books into one movie, while making Spider's Web the third leg of their film trilogy. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo cost $90 million to make under director David Fincher, and the studio wants to make the sequel for a much lower cost without the director. Sources say the studio also has the rights to Spider's Web. Former Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal, who negotiated for the rights to Stieg Larsson's books, is not in favor of this idea, because it would mean that the studio would be forced to shelve a Steven Zaillian script that only covered The Girl Who Played with Fire, which Sony paid mid-seven figures for.

It isn't known if Rooney Mara (Lisbeth Salander), Daniel Craig (Mikael Blomkvist) or any of the other Girl with the Dragon Tattoo cast members will be coming back. Producer Scott Rudin's involvement in the sequel is also unclear at this point. Are you excited that Lisbeth Salander may finally come back to the big screen? Let us know what you think below.