Hey everyone, thanks for hanging in there while I dealt with a personal matter yesterday. Posting should go back to normal now … hopefully.
Anyway, if you’ve seen The Hunger Games already and you know you have, everyone has seen it, the movie made enough to fill one of those Scrooge McDuck money pools. So chances are you’re already waiting breathlessly for the second film from the trilogy, Catching Fire. Well, good news! The movie has made one more step towards actually being made, as Francis Lawrence has been given the offer to sign on as the new director. Via Hollywood Reporter:
After a quick but fairly exhaustive search, Lionsgate has chosen Francis Lawrence to direct the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire. Sources say Lawrence will receive an official offer soon. If he accepts and a deal can be worked out, he will replace Gary Ross, who directed the hugely successful first installment of the franchise. The hunt has been fast and furious, with the field narrowing down to Lawrence, director of I Am Legend and Water for Elephants, and Bennett Miller, who helmed the Oscar-nominated Brad Pitt baseball movie Moneyball. Both directors met with the studio yesterday, according to sources, and Lionsgate executives have made their pick. Lawrence was deemed the front-runner by observers simply because of his open schedule. Miller is working his way to a December start for Foxcatcher, a true-life project centering on John Du Pont that has been his focus for several years. Miller has even lined up Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo for the drama, and delaying it would have been a Herculean task.
Yes, that was a major Hollywood insider magazine basically saying that the new director of Catching Fire only got hired because he was available. Ouch. Seriously, I’m sure the guy is crazy talented and has an eye for action sequences, but the way they put it makes it sound like Hollywood hires directors the same way they pick up booty calls.
