Banijay & Sony In Rights Dispute Over ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ TV Series

Banijay and Sony have entered a rights dispute over Sky ‘s new The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo TV series. Deadline understands that Banijay last night filed arbitration with Sony just a day after the splashy new series from Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna was announced. It is understood the dispute revolves around Banijay believing the TV and film rights to Stieg Larsson ‘s Millennium Trilogy have reverted back to them since The Girl in the Spider’s Web movie aired in 2018. Banijay believes the new Sky project, which is being produced by Sony-owned The Crown indie Left Bank , is therefore in breach, and it has filed arbitration. The pair will either look to settle the dispute or it will move to a court case. Watch on Deadline Banijay-owned Yellow Bird produced the original Swedish Millennium Trilogy movies, which starred Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist. Yellow Bird then partnered with Sony’s Columbia Pictures, MGM and Scott Rudin Productions for David Fincher’s 2011 English language film starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, and the 2018 follow-up The Girl in the Spider’s Web with Claire Foy. Sony first optioned the rights to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2009 and we understand Left Bank had been developing the TV version for a number of years. Banijay and Sony declined comment. Deadline has reached out to Sky for comment. Casting has not yet been set for the TV show, which is described as a “bold and contemporary reimagining” and is currently being shopped to the U.S. The neo-noir book tells the story of lead Mikael Blomkvist’s investigation to find out what happened to a girl from a wealthy family who had disappeared 40 years earlier. He recruits the help of Lisbeth Salander, a computer hacker. This isn’t the first time the popular Scandi IP has caused a dispute. Larsson died suddenly in 2004 and the trilogy was published posthumously, at which point the rights reverted to his blood relatives, which his partner of 32 years, Eva Gabrielsson, took issue with and took to court. Banijay has been in the news plenty this week after reports emerged that it is in talks to merge with The Traitors super-producer All3Media.

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