Catching Fire (movie) news

Catching Fire is looking for new director. Gary Ross decided to not make the sequel.

http://www.movies.com/movie-news/catching-...4&wssaffid=news

On the one hand, he did such a great job with the first movie, I would have been delighted to see him back for the second.

On the other hand, I can totally understand quitting while you're ahead. More seriously, directing is a boatload of work -- and he surely put a whole lot of emotional energy into the first movie, and it's very understandable he wouldn't want to do that again.

Guess we'll see.

This post has been edited by Darth Lex on Apr 6 2012, 08:34 PM

And from what insiders say it wasn't about money. Lionsgate wanted to give him a nice rise but he is a succesful screenwriter and money is not a problem for him.

Yahoo points out which franchises have shifted directors and done fine.

The OT was the best part of Star Wars and it had three directors. I'm thinking HG will be fine.

I've been watching stories for the last week in which Ross was waffling about directing the sequel. Just two weeks ago he was talking about developing the Catching Fire story. Quite a difference in a short period of time. He obviously changed his mind, and I suspect that Catching Fire is so completely different in setting, tone, action, and storytelling, that Ross felt the next book wasn't "grabbing" his interest. The Hunger Games was the story he wanted to tell, and he did it.

Because Catching Fire is such a different story, I don't think a change in Director will hurt the series. Continuity is not as important when each book takes such a big shift.

Personally, I was hoping Ross would do it because I like him - as a Director and as a person. I think he pulled great performances out of his actors. Again, that is not to say someone else can't do the same.

At least the major actors are signed. Changing THEM would present a huge problem.

This post has been edited by oldjedinurse on Apr 7 2012, 02:32 PM

And then again...

Here's another report that surfaced just eighteen minutes ago:

The Washington Post did hedge their bets yesterday, saying "reportedly" Ross had dropped out. Many others used the word "unofficially", so who knows what the truth is?

This is from a Moviefone interview only two weeks ago (March 20th) - emphasis mine:

Time will tell...

This post has been edited by oldjedinurse on Apr 7 2012, 02:51 PM

I'm thinking he's out, but has been working as a consultant. Or he's brilliant and leveraging more moola. He's always struck me as a one and done guy, not a franchiser. The stop-go yes-no articles are popping up all day. No such thing as bad publicity.

They should hire Alfonso Cuarón.

Yes, I think they are enjoying the publicity of keeping HG at the top of the news in its third weekend.

I'm not convinced Gary Ross isn't directing CF -- but it seems pretty clear to me that he hasn't yet affirmatively committed to direct it, either. If it were a done deal, they'd just say so. Which means either that it's still up in the air, or that they're just holding off on officially confirming that it'll be someone else.

It also wouldn't surprise me at all if he decides to stay on as a consultant. He's a highly regarded script doctor, he did a great job with the first movie, and he clearly cares deeply about the story, characters, and the lead actors. So I could see him saying that he doesn't want the burden of directing, but he'll still give input on the script to Collins and Beaufoy. Which I bet they'd welcome.

Then again, it also wouldn't shock me if he decided to direct CF after all.

The consultant role makes sense. It would be smart to utilize his knowledge and feel for the material. The way he talks about it, Ross is obviously fascinated by the richness of the story - and he "gets" it.

I think he likes working on scripts but maybe the directing part of it can be a bit tiring. It's a lot of responsibility and a lot of creative genius and energy to maintain over a long haul.

Per TheHob, apparently the Lionsgate-Ross negotiations began in earnest today.

Interesting info in their post, if you're curious.

Interesting.

So Ross was on vacation as Perez Hilton so hysterically reported.

The Twitter Age may be known for the immediacy of its urgent rumors than anything else.

This is why I was waiting for some official word. To me, all that "news" read like someone just drumming up publicity.

It's official -- Gary Ross will not direct Catching Fire.

TheHob has the full text of his press release, as well as Lionsgate's.

Unfortunate but understandable. Everything I've read about Gary Ross suggests that he's incredibly detail oriented, and very keen on getting things exactly right the way he wants them. Which is great -- but doesn't work well on a time crunch. And honestly, given the incredible momentum of the first movie, I think Lionsgate is well served to keep the second movie on pace for next fall.

And they'll have no trouble finding an incredibly talented director.

I'm sad to see him go, but I'm confident they'll find someone who will work well.

He said he wasn't directing. Maybe that means there will still be room for him to do some script consulting.

Still I feel for him. It sucks when you have a vision for something and factors out of your control, like time and scheduling, prevent you from realizing it. At least he got to do his vision for the first movie. And we are all impatient enough to see the next movie already, aren't we?

to both Lex and Solo_and_Fel.

I'm sure that no one involved wants to go with a script that ends up being a compromise because of time constraints.

The production timeline does appear to be incredibly tight and there are so many factors, including freeing Jen Lawrence for the next X-men movie.

Hopefully, some of Gary's detail-oriented insights will be apparent in Catching Fire. From everything I've read it seems obvious that Ross is quite invested in the story as an important cautionary tale. Plus it sounds like he cares about Suzanne Collins's vision, the cast, and the way the story is presented, so I wouldn't be surprised to find that he consults on the sequels.

With any luck, they'll find a director who can maintain the tone of the first movie. No one wants to see what happened to Harry Potter again. The movies felt so different from one another. They lack cohesion.

At the blog, discussing change and stability in the Hunger Games. Not time to despair at losing Gary Ross.

TheHob has the reported short list for Catching Fire.

The comments are particularly interesting to me, because not being a big Harry Potter fan, I don't really know the whole fandom divide over whether the third HP movie (directed by Cuaron) was awesome or a travesty. The impression I get from the comments is that some people really like the movie as a movie, while others think it deviated too much from the book. Which is some of the same concerns we've seen in the Hunger Games fandom about the first movie, although most of what I've seen online (admittedly not a ton) seems to be positive toward the movie's differences. That said, personally I'm okay with some significant changes as long as the core stays true to the spirit of the story and characters, so I'd probably be okay with Cuaron for HG too.