Big congratulations to Noomi for winning the 2011 Empire Award as Best Actress for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. She was nominated alongside Emma Watson (Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part One), Olivia Williams (The Ghost), Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech) and this year’s Oscar winner Natalie Portman (The Black Swan). Regarding Rapace, Empire wrote, “Lisbeth Salander – the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – is already a major literary heroine, and the unusual-looking, intense Rapace (not as tiny as the girl in the books, but otherwise ideal) is liable to become an international star with this role (which she’s reprised in the two already-made follow-ups). The best Euro action heroine since Anne Parillaud’s Nikita and the most influential female thriller lead since Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling, Lisbeth is an interesting mix of credibly screwed-up victim and resourceful superheroine – making good use of a stun-gun, a dildo, a tattoo needle and a golf club in kicking against the pricks.” Pictures from the ceremony have been added to the gallery.

Additionally, four video clips from the Empire Awards have been added to the archive, including Noomi’s speech and interviews from the red carpet and the press room. Enjoy!

Exlusive article by Empire Magazine: If Lord Lucan reappeared to direct a film about the Wombles, it’d struggle to match Ridley Scott’s Prometheus for secrecy. While the web melts down under the weight of speculation about the movie’s mythology and storyline, we think Scott may have threatened to run over any cast member who spills the beans with one of his brother’s trains. Thanks, then, to Noomi Rapace for sharing a few titbits on her character, scientist Elizabeth Shaw, when we caught up with her at the Jameson Empire Awards. “She’s not that damaged which for me is kind of nice,” laughed the one-time Lisbeth Salander, now a week into filming at Pinewood. “She has an inner strength that is quite beautiful and a pureness too. She’s very obsessed with finding out something.”

Rapace wouldn’t elaborate on what exactly that thing is but it could answer to the name ‘voracious xenomorph’. So will Prometheus mirror the psychological horror of Alien? “Yes, kind of,” says Rapace. “What I like so much about the Alien movies is that they’re out there in space and it’s weird, but [the characters] are very human and very down to earth. That’s what [Ridley] created and that’s who he is, and I think we’ll probably see that again on this one.” Post-Dragon Tattoo, The Swedish actress is in serious demand but one project that hangs in the balance is David Slade’s vampire flick The Last Voyage Of Demeter, with a possible scheduling clash in the offing. “I do hope [I can do it] but I don’t know,” says Rapace, “I’m occupied until late July or August.” Rapace, a convert to the joys of London since moving to the city in September to prep for Prometheus, is still weighing her option for when the sci-fi wraps later this year. “For the moment I don’t want to decide what to do next,” she explains, “I think I’d like to do something quite small.”

Article courtesy IndieWire’s The Playlist: Despite director David Slade recently taking to Twitter to express his optimism about the prospects for the previously announced vampire-road-film “The Last Voyage Of Demeter,” it seems one of his potential stars isn’t quite on the same level. ‘Dragon Tattoo’ star Noomi Rapace has revealed that her burgeoning slate and increasing popularity in Hollywood may be a hurdle too great to overcome for the potential collaboration with Slade. “I do hope [I can do it] but I don’t know,” the actress told Empire. “I’m occupied until late July or August… For the moment I don’t want to decide what to do next. I think I’d like to do something quite small.” And small doesn’t exactly seem like what the adaptation has to offer for this intriguing “Alien”-inspired horror tale of the ill-fated journey of Dracula’s coffin from Transylvania to England. The complete article can be read here.

Article courtesy the Hollywood Reporter: A Stieg Larsson confidant shares what happens in the unpublished manuscript thought to be the fourth novel in the ‘Millennium’ series. A close friend of deceased crime writer Stieg Larsson has revealed details of the unpublished manuscript thought to be the fourth book in the global best-selling Millennium series. Larsson confidant Kurdo Baksi told Swedish daily paper the Expressen that Camilla, the estranged twin sister of Millennium’s goth hacker heroine Lisbeth Salander, plays a major role in the fourth book. Camilla was seen only briefly in the second Millennium novel, The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Baksi is quoted in Expressen as saying the fourth novel is set on the remote Banks Island in Canada and the further deepens the relationship between Salander and investigative journalist Mikael Blomqvist. Baksi, whose book My friend Stieg Larsson was a best-seller last year, added that before he died Larsson completed a detailed introduction and a finale to the fourth book. Larsson died suddenly in 2004, before the three Millennium books were published. But it’s been widely reported that he had plans for a series of five or six books. There is huge commercial interest in continuing the Millennium franchise. The novels were a phenomenal global success, as were the Swedish films based on them, which launched the career of actress who played Salander, Noomi Rapace. The Hollywood adaptation of the books – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, directed by David Fincher and starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig – hits theaters Dec. 21.

Larsson’s long-time partner Eva Gabrielsson has said she has a large part of the manuscript for the fourth novel on a computer in her possession. But Gabrielsson, who was not formally married to Larsson, is in a bitter fight with Larsson’s family over Millennium royalties and has so far refused to make the unfinished manuscript public. In Stieg and I, her biography of her life with Larsson, Gabrielsson gave the fourth book the working title God’s revenge. She has been quoted as saying she could finish the novel on Larsson’s behalf. So far, however, Larsson’s publishers – in Sweden and internationally – have said there are no plans to publish a fourth novel in the series.

Ridley Scott has plumbed for a relative unknown actor to play Noomi Rapace’s space-bound love interest in Prometheus. Deadline confirm that Logan Marshall-Green has just signed on to the role in Scott’s belated, distant cousin to Alien. Marshall-Green will play Holloway, a space craft crew member, and a love interest for Rapace’s Elizabeth. The 34-year-old actor was last seen on the big screen in lift thriller Devil and Brooklyn’s Finest, while he’s also done TV work with The O.C. He joins Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Sean Harris and Katie Dickie. Filming on Prometheus will commence in the UK this month.

Article courtesy The Playlist. With the the casting for the lead roles sorted out earlier in the week and with a release date just over a year from now, THR reports that Ridley Scott has actually already started shooting “Prometheus” at Pinewood Studios Toronto – where it will lens for three weeks – and eagle eyed celeb watchers might want to keep an eye out around town for Noomi Rapace.Speaking recently with MTV, the actress revealed the shoot will be a long one that will go right into the fall saying, “I’m jumping into that straight off of [’Sherlock Holmes 2’]. My character’s name is Elizabeth Shaw, and I’ll step into her shoes in March and be her for six months or something. It’s quite a long shoot. It’s unbelievable.”

Details on the plot are being kept securely under lock and key, but what little we do know is that Michael Fassbender will be playing an android, and Rapace opens up a little bit about her character in the film as well. “She’s a scientist and is very bright,” she said. “She’s a believer. I think there are some similarities, but she’s very much her own. I don’t think people will compare her so much to Ripley once they see the movie.” Once the work in Toronto is done, lensing will likely continue at Pinewood London where most of the shoot is expected to take place. Joining Rapace and Fassbender in the film will be Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Sean Harris and Kate Dickie. The film, which shares some connective tissue with the original “Alien,” will land right in the middle of summer next year on June 8, 2012.

The “Prometheus” cast is starting to fill out with acclaimed actors including Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender and Idris Elba. But for many, it all starts with Noomi Rapace, the leading lady in Ridley Scott’s hotly anticipated return to the science fiction genre.

Currently best known for playing Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Rapace is set for the role of scientist Elizabeth Shaw, the supposed protagonist of “Prometheus.” It’s a daunting prospect for any actor who hopes to take the reins of an “Alien” spinoff from former leading lady Sigourney Weaver, but as Rapace explains it, the comparisons between Shaw and Ripley won’t last for long. “She’s definitely her own [character],” Rapace told us during a recent interview on the set of “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” adding that “Prometheus” does indeed have connections to the “Alien” series.

Article and quotes courtesy ReelzChannel. Director Ridley Scott’s upcoming Prometheus began as a prequel to Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic Alien, until a few months ago, when the Prometheus title was announced and Scott revealed that the movie would include “a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place.” It was also announced that Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) had landed the lead role in the movie, that of a scientist named Elizabeth Shaw. It’s the second major role the actress has landed in Hollywood, along with the role of the gypsy Sim in Sherlock Holmes sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. During a visit to the Game of Shadows, Rapace described the Prometheus role to MTV and talked about what it’s like to be in Scott’s sci-fi movie.

It’s overwhelming. It’s a great honor and I’m really excited. I’ve met him maybe seven or eight times and he’s so passionate. I think he really loves movies. He watches movies every night. He’s seen everything. When you talk about anything, you know, he’s seen it and knows it. So it’s so inspiring to talk to him. We had a long chat on the phone – he’s in LA now – about my character. I have many ideas and he has many ideas, and now we’re starting to search and try to find her. I’m jumping into that straight off of [A Game of Shadows]. My character’s name is Elizabeth Shaw, so I will step into her shoes in March and be her for six months or something. It’s quite a long shoot. It’s unbelievable.

The Alien franchise has always had a female lead, that of Ripley, the character Sigourney Weaver played in all four Alien movies. Despite Prometheus only containing “strands of Alien DNA,” the comparisons of Rapace’s Shaw to Weaver’s Ripley are inevitable, but not something that Rapace is worried about since Shaw is definitely her own character.”

She’s a scientist and she’s very bright. She’s a believer. I think there are some similarities, but she’s very much her own. I don’t think people will compare her so much to Ripley once they see the movie.

The cast for Prometheus continues to grow. With Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron set to co-star with Rapace, Idris Elba (The Losers, Thor), Sean Harris and Kate Dickie were added the cast at the end of last month, and, according to the DailyMail (via The Playlist), British actor Rafe Spall (Hot Fizz) is joining the cast as well in an unspecified role. Details of the exact storyline, originally written by Jon Spaihts, and rewritten by Damon Lindelof, as well as many of the movie’s characters, are being kept secret for now.
Prometheus is set to start production on March 21, and, as Rapace pointed, will continue for six months. The movie is scheduled to open on June 8, 2012.

The Australian has a nice article on Noomi Rapace, just in time for the down under release of “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”. An excerpt follows below. The complete article can be read here. On screen it is clear how keenly Noomi Rapace inhabited the role of Lisbeth Salander in the film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. Her bracing, brooding performance in the first film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, propelled the unknown Swedish actress out of a steady career in Scandinavia into the global spotlight and was enough to convince Guy Ritchie and Ridley Scott to cast her, respectively, as the lead in the coming Sherlock Holmes sequel and the Alien prequel, Prometheus. US critic Roger Ebert was moved to write that Rapace’s Lisbeth “is as compelling as any movie character in recent memory”. She wasn’t always such. Larsson’s three novels, published posthumously, focused on campaigning journalist Mikael Blomkvist as much as the psychologically damaged hacker Lisbeth. And when filming began neither was anticipated to capture the world’s imagination. They were solid characters, yes, but not superstars.