Hollywood picks up Swede smell of success

When it comes to American movie remakes, the Swedes are having their moment.

Not long ago the Japanese were in fashion, inspiring horror-movie remakes like 2002's "The Ring," starring Naomi Watts, and 2004's "The Grudge," with Sarah Michelle Gellar. And the Dutch had a brief vogue following the death of director Theo van Gogh: His movies were remade as 2007's "Interview," starring Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller as a journalist and a starlet, and 2008's "Blind Date," with Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson playing a troubled married couple.

But the rapturous critical reception for 2008's moody Swedish vampire drama "Let the Right One In" has opened the door to other film titles with little circles over the A's. Overture Films apparently saw the potential to coattail on the glossy "Twilight" films and also serve as a substantive antidote; on Friday the studio releases "Let Me In," starring up-and-coming youngsters Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz.

Even before that, the Swedish "Millennium" trilogy of mystery novels, which began with "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," had become American bestsellers. A Swedish film adaptation of the first novel stoked further American interest earlier this year; now David Fincher ("The Social Network") is set to direct the U.S. version, starring Daniel Craig as the journalist hero and Rooney Mara as the goth-girl heroine. (The Swedish sequel, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," comes out Oct. 29.)

What's next? Possibly the little-seen "Snabba Cash" ("Easy Money"), about a young man who secretly sells cocaine to impress an upper-class girlfriend. The star of the Warner Bros. remake, according to reports: Zac Efron.