Banijay and Sony Face Off in Rights Dispute Over ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ TV Series
Banijay and Sony have found themselves embroiled in a rights dispute over Sky’s upcoming TV adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
The conflict centers on Banijay’s assertion that the TV and film rights to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy reverted to them following the release of The Girl in the Spider’s Web in 2018.
Believing the new Sky series, produced by Sony-owned Left Bank, constitutes a breach of rights, Banijay has initiated arbitration. The two companies will aim to settle the dispute, or it may escalate to a court case.
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Banijay’s Yellow Bird was responsible for the original Swedish films of the Millennium Trilogy, featuring actors Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist. The company subsequently collaborated with Sony’s Columbia Pictures, MGM, and Scott Rudin Productions for the 2011 English-language adaptation directed by David Fincher, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, as well as the 2018 follow-up, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, featuring Claire Foy. Sony first obtained the rights to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2009, and it is understood that Left Bank has been working on the TV version for several years.
Casting for the series has yet to be announced, but it is described as a “bold and contemporary reimagining.” The neo-noir narrative follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist as he investigates the 40-year-old disappearance of a girl from a wealthy family, enlisting the assistance of Lisbeth Salander, a computer hacker.
This is not the first instance of legal disputes concerning the popular Scandinavian intellectual property. Following Stieg Larsson’s untimely death in 2004, the trilogy was published posthumously, and the rights reverted to his family, sparking legal tension with his long-time partner, Eva Gabrielsson.
Banijay has garnered attention this week as reports surfaced regarding discussions to merge with All3Media, the production company behind The Traitors.
