TORONTO — When a book as monumentally big as "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" is turned into a film it stands to reason that the pool of moviegoers knowing absolutely nothing about the story may be somewhat small.

But Canadian star Christopher Plummer believes the fans of Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy will be rushing out to see the new film adaptation when it starts screening in select theatres on Tuesday night.

Plummer considers himself a fan. He found the series "horrifically riveting" as he breezed through all three novels in preparation for playing Henrik Vanger, an elderly business magnate who is determined to find out who is responsible for the disappearance of his great-niece decades earlier.

"There's no danger of people not going to see this movie," said Plummer during a recent telephone interview from his home in Connecticut.

"It's more attractive to those having read the book, they're dying to see what the movie has done to it and they'll be pleasantly surprised."

He particularly singled out the performance of Rooney Mara, who plays Lisbeth Salander, an outcast investigative hacker who helps magazine reporter Mikael Blomkvist (played by Daniel Craig) look into the mysterious disappearance of Vanger's great-niece Harriet.

"Mara is a revelation, absolutely phenomenal," Plummer said, "I thought she was the most extraordinary part of the movie. Plus, David Fincher's wonderful sort of restless direction and (Trent Reznor's) incredible score that went underneath -- which provides this awful, dangerous pulse, you aren't allowed it rest for a second -- it's very clever."

Plummer said he was especially attracted to the film because of his admiration for Fincher's work, including last year's hit "The Social Network," which won three Oscars and was nominated for another five.

Fincher has a reputation for shooting many, many takes in pursuit of perfection and Plummer confirmed that to be true. But he appreciated Fincher's approach.

"He's such an intelligent fellow, he's not going to just do them because he's an insecure director; in some cases an insecure director needs to do so many takes because he doesn't know what the hell he wants. But in Fincher's case, it's always to improve it, to take a difference tack, experiment with colours, and it's fascinating actually, so you don't mind all those takes," Plummer said.

"And it was delightful because he had such a good sense of humour, so you forgive him all his many takes.

"You can tease him and say, 'Oh for Chrissakes, take 50? What do you want me to do now?' and he laughs. The set was always in a light, positive frame of mind, even though you're doing a horrifically turgid story."

Plummer's role comes to an end with the first part of the "Millennium" trilogy but he's not too disappointed to move on. First of all, he's busy, with preparations for his one-man theatrical show "A Word or Two," which he plans to debuts this summer in Stratford, Ont. He hopes the show could then be taken on the road to California and then Broadway.

Plus, Plummer had enough of the bone-chilling conditions that accompanied the first film's shoot in Sweden, which apparently put Canadian winters to shame.

"It was so bloody cold, it was freezing in Sweden -- inside and out," Plummer said. "We just ploughed on as fast as we could to get to the restaurant in the hotel, where I could not wait to sit down and have a drink.

"I don't really envy (the other actors), they're going to be stuck in Sweden for two-and-a-half years. I love Sweden, don't get me wrong, it's perfectly beautiful in the spring ... but two years of the winter in the country? Good luck."