Cinefile

Deadline Hollywood has a cool, early Oscar scoop: Noomi Rapace, of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo fame, could already be next March's early front-runner for Best Actress!

"I've now confirmed that she is eligible. Because Music Box Films released director Niels Arden Oplev's Dragon Tattoo version in a Los Angeles County theater for a qualifying run this past March, thus making Rapace's performance eligible. I've learned that Music Box Films is about to hire an Oscar publicist, probably Melody Korenbrot, to promote Noomi for a Best Actress nomination. That's right, Best Actress. She's already won the Swedish equivalency of that for the film. Her new agents at UTA and managers at Magnolia are comparing her to Marion Cotillard, who appeared in a small foreign film, came out of nowhere to be nominated and then win the Best Actress Academy Award, then landed big roles in major studio tentpoles. "You can have that same journey. You speak English better than she does," she's been told."

This comes as an interesting development for the breakout Swedish franchise, considering that Rooney Mara (The Social Network) was just cast for the same role in the upcoming American version of the same title.