Mr. Daniel "Pay Me What I'm Worth" Craig might just price himself right out of that Girl With The Dragon Tattoo sequel

As soon as it was announced that David Fincher was eyeing Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, many began questioning what had happened to that other dark thriller about a girl he was once so into, and whether he had maybe left it on the plane or something. As it turns out, both Sony and Fincher are still interested in making The Girl Who Played With Fire, but—after the relatively disappointing $230 million haul for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo—doing so on a smaller budget that will help it become the blockbuster they’d always hoped for, apparently, from their R-rated, Christmastime rape movie.

And when it comes to reducing one’s movie budget, the first step is checking to see whether it’s got Daniel Craig in it: The Hollywood Reporter says that Craig is now looking for a post-Skyfall pay raise that could end up pricing him right out of the movie, as the studio is reportedly considering writing around his character to remove him entirely from the second chapter (which is far more Lisbeth Salander-focused anyway). Of course, these talks haven’t formally begun, so leaking this story could all just be an early negotiation tactic on Sony’s part. And if this doesn’t work, they could also try saying, “The movie’s not called The Girl With The Stoic British Guy, you know.”