Carey Mulligan set to play Girl with Dragon Tattoo

Carey Mulligan, the young British actress who leapt to international fame last year with her Oscar-nominated role in An Education, is set to land her biggest role yet in the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Mulligan is reported to be the favourite for the role of Lisbeth Salander, the tattooed punk heroine of Stieg Larsson's best-selling Millennium trilogy. Producers are said to have seen some 5,000 hopefuls in their bid to find the right actress.

Mulligan is thought to have won the approval of both the director David Fincher as well as the family of the late Swedish author. Importantly, she has also caught the eye of Scott Rudin, the producer behind the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men and the man who convinced the Larsson family to give permission for a Hollywood remake of Girl.

As the First Post reported earlier this month, there has already been much speculation that Mulligan was in the running for the role. At the time, however, she said that she had not even been approached by the film's producers.

Mulligan, who can next be seen alongside Michael Douglas in Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to the 1980s classic, Wall Street, has previously described herself as "obsessed" with Larsson's books. “I would love to do them," she said in March. "I am not going to lie about that. I would love to play Lisbeth Salander."

According to the Sunday Times, Mulligan could be paid up to £10 million for a three-film deal if she wins the role, making the 24-year-old one of Britain's best-paid actresses.

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