Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures finally announced that they had clinched English-language film rights to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series of books in December last year. That was 10 months after the first of three Swedish films based on the trilogy had opened in Scandinavia, and more than four years after Men Who Hate Women, the first book in the trilogy (renamed The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in English markets) was published in Sweden. David Fincher is reported to be close to signing on to direct the US version of the story, which revolves around sociopathic computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.It’s a success story with fascinating ramifications for European literary properties. Not only are the Swedish films doing extremely good global business but a trio of US films could be on the way. For the intellectual property (IP) holders, the potential long-term returns from multiple bites on the Larsson cherry are significant. For the film-makers, Larsson’s Salander character is a future perennial.The success of Larsson’s books and the ongoing book-to-film success of JK Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Mark Millar and many others confirm Europe’s place as a centre of literary and graphic novel properties in demand by indigenous and Hollywood…