Playing With Fire Shoots By The End Of 2012?

Plans for that sequel to David Fincher's American adaptation of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo may be moving faster than first thought.

Deadline reports that  Sony Pictures would like to start shooting the second film in the trilogy "The Girl Who Played with Fire" by late 2012/early 2013 but they have not locked Fincher as director. The studio also has not confirmed talk that the second and third film would be shot back-to-back.

Writer Steven Zaillian who penned the adapted script of Fincher's 'Tattoo', has seemingly already been at work on the script for the next pic.

While the R-rated 'Dragon' opened soft in the U.S., it is doing stronger biz than pretty much every other holiday release and will likely tally around the $100 million mark domestically.  Abroad the film opened soft in Europe and Asian markets, but should still reach a combined worldwide total of over $200 million.