The late Swedish author Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, which has sold almost two million books in Sweden, will be filmed by Sweden 's Yellow Bird on a $15.4m (Euros 10.7m) budget.

Swedish actors Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace will star in the three thrillers filled with action and courtroom drama, following investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his partner, the dysfunctional IT hacker Lisbeth Salander, who solve mysteries.

Danish director Niels Arden Oplev, whose We Shall Overcome (Drommen) won the Crystal Bear in Berlin and went on to sell 412,000 tickets domestically, will direct Men Who Hate Women (Män som hatar kvinnor), which will be released theatrically all over Scandinavia in the spring of 2009.

The directors of The Girl Who Played With The Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) and The Air Castle That Blew Up (Loftslottet som sprängdes) - both to be made for DVD and television - are yet to be named.

Danish screenwriters Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel will deliver the screenplays for the first two films, while Ulf Ryberg will write the third.

Principal photography is scheduled for spring 2008. Danish producer Soren Staermose, of Yellow Bird, will produce the three movies, which will be co-produced by Danish major Nordisk Film (which will also distribute), Swedish Television SVT and Germany 's ZDF Enterprises.

Recently sold to Zodiac Television, Yellow Bird - which is co-owned by Swedish writer Henning Mankell - has most recently made 13 films from Mankell's stories about police detective Kurt Wallander. A new Mankell package is also in the pipeline.

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