Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — NBC may wish Steve Carell was just joking, but a network executive said The Office star has consistently told NBC he’s leaving after this coming season. In the network’s first acknowledgment of Carell’s plans, NBC Primetime Entertainment President Angela Bromstad said Monday that the actor’s seven-year run as erratic Dunder Mifflin boss Michael Scott will end when his contract expires in 2011. But Bromstad said the show will go on. In an affirmation of NBC’s faith in a post-Carell The Office, Bromstad said the sitcom will remain in its 8 p.m. CDT Thursday time slot. Carell, 47, who’s become a busy big-screen actor during his Office tenure, has said in interviews he plans to leave the series to better balance his work and family life. He voices the lead character in the new animated comedy Despicable Me and stars in Dinner for Schmucks, out this week. Whether Michael Scott’s job will be filled by a promotion from within or an outside hire is under discussion. Bringing in a big name star is an option, but “it’s not the front-running idea,” said Paul Lieberstein, an Office cast member and executive producer.

Daniel Craig has a new mission. The current star of the James Bond films has signed on for the English language remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Distributor Sony Pictures confirmed that Craig is taking on the role of journalist Mikael Blomkvist in the thriller based on the first novel in the best-selling series from the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. The violent story teams Blomkvist with the title character, Lisbeth Salander, a deeply troubled genius tormented by a terrible childhood, as they delve into the mystery of a missing girl whose disappearance leads them to a string of decades-old murders. The role of Lisbeth has not yet been cast. Directed by David Fincher, the film is due in theaters next year.