According to the Hollywood Reporter, Noomi Rapace has booked her first English-language role: the plum part of the female lead in Warner Bros.’s “Sherlock Holmes 2.” Guy Ritchie is back as director while Joel Silver, Susan Downey, Lionel Wigram and Dan Lin return as producers. The logline is being kept under wraps, although it is known Holmes will face off against Moriarty. Also making an appearance will be Holmes’ brother, Mycroft. Rapace’s role is shrouded in mystery although sources say the character may be a French Gypsy. It is unclear if the role is romantic in nature. Warners is looking to start production later this year. Off the strength of her breakthrough performance in the Swedish-language “Tattoo,” Rapace snagged representation with UTA and Magnolia Entertainment. She made a well-publicized trip to LA mid-August, meeting with top producers and directors to discuss making an entry into the American film scene. “Holmes 2” is the first acting gig to come to fruition from those meetings.

Over 1.200 high quality DVD screencaptures from “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” have been added to the Image Library. Please note that these caps include spoilers to the film’s synopsis, so be warned ;-) Captures from the second and third installment will follow. Enjoy!

A very interesting article on Noomi’s upcoming projects courtesy The Hollywood Reporter from May 2005. Noomi Rapace, the star of Swedish hit “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” will not reprise her role as goth hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s English-language adaptation of the Stieg Larsson best-seller. Speaking to THR in Cannes, Rapace said after two years shooting the Larsson “Millennium” trilogy in Swedish, she has had enough of Salander and would not accept the role even if Fincher offered it to her. “No, I’m done with her (Lisbeth), and it’s up to somebody else to step into her shoes,” Rapace said. “I don’t like to repeat myself. So it’s better if someone else does it.” But Rapace did suggest that Fincher and producer Scott Rudin expand their casting call beyond the A-listers (Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan are among those thought to be vying for the part) to include some lesser-known names. “I hope they won’t take, you know, a big celebrity … because sometimes the fame makes it difficult to believe in (the character), especially Lisbeth, who is very complicated and dark and so on,” she said. “So I hope they take someone who is a little less known. Not one of the biggest ones. We’ll see.”

In an interview at the Venice International Film Festival, Jeremy Renner dropped word to Kultur (translated by the folks at Twitch) that he and Noomi Rapace are in negotiations to join Paramount’s “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”. Tommy Wirkola is set to direct the film, which takes place 15 years after the siblings’ incident involving the gingerbread house. The siblings have evolved into bounty hunters who hunt witches. Tommy Wirkola wrote the script with Dante Harper. No production date has been set for this possible 2011 release.

The Hollywood Reporter has reviewed Noomi’s upcoming drama “Beyond” after seeing it at the Venice Film Festivel. Below is an excerpt, the complete review (with possible spoilers) can be read here. “Beyond” is based on the best-selling, semiautobiographical Swedish novel by Susanna Alakoski and features Noomi Rapace, a global star since she first took the role of Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” Success in the Nordic countries is ensured, as is international art house appeal, for this dramatic, beautifully acted but never bleak story. In “Beyond,” Rapace plays Leena, a seemingly happy wife and mother of two who returns to her hometown when she learns her mother is dying. Actually, she is dragged back by her husband (Rapace’s real-life spouse, Ola Rapace), who like their daughters reacts rather unflappably to the news that Mom’s Mom is alive, a fact Leena kept from her family.

Rapace proves she is an heir of the Bergman school of understatement. A driven woman seeking order – her Leena is all determination and forward motion. She cannot stop moving for fear her demons will break her.

Cinema Blend has observed that Noomi is eligible to enter next year’s awards race for the Academy Awards: Noomi Rapace is a name that most of you probably still don’t know. Maybe that’ll change, because she deserves an Oscar nomination for her work as Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Though the movie was first released in Sweden in 2009 Deadline confirms that she is eligible for nomination. Her performance is the best thing I’ve seen this year.

Whether or not she gets an Oscar nomination, Hollywood has already decided to sit up and take note of her talent. While she won’t show up in the unnecessary Americanization of Dragon Tattoo, the actress is getting offers for roles in all sorts of big budget American films, specifically Sherlock Holmes 2 and Mission: Impossible 4. No word on exactly what part she’d play in those movies, but she’s too talented to be wasted on a minor cameo. Hopefully she’ll also avoid being typecast as the cliché, leather-wearing, punk female badass she pulls off in Dragon Tattoo and its sequels. Apparently Rapace is nothing like Lisbeth Salander in person, which only makes her performance more impressive, and her potential as an actress even more tantalizing.