Michael Nyqvist to play the villain in Mission Impossible 4

Michael Nyqvist, the Swedish actor who played Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig’s future role) in the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, has been cast as one of the lead villains in Mission Impossible 4 according to THR. No further information has been revealed, but this will be the actors second big Hollywood movie after filming Abduction with Taylor Lautner.

The confirmed cast so far includes Tom Cruise who will once again play agent Ethan Hunt, but this time he is joined by another agent in the form of Jeremy Renner. Paula Patton will play an operative who works with them, as do Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg who are back in their roles.

Filming will take place in Vancouver, Prague, Dubai and the U.S. under the direction of Brad Bird (Ratatouille). Paramount has set a December 2011 release date, which means it is the first time a Mission Impossible film has been released outside of the summer movie season.