Gary Ross In Lionsgate Cross-Hairs For Coveted ‘Hunger Games’ Assignment
EXCLUSIVE: Gary Ross is in early talks to direct The Hunger Games, the first installment of the novel trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The film is a joint production between Lionsgate and Color Force’s Nina Jacobson. Filming will start next year with a script by Billy Ray, who rewrote a draft by the author. The huge sales of the trilogy make the film adaptations a potential game-changer for Lionsgate, the way that Twilight was for Summit Entertainment. It has been a coveted job among directors (Three More Directors Circle ‘The Hunger Games’), and Lionsgate picture chief Joe Drake and Jacobson spent the past two weeks meeting candidates that included Sam Mendes, David Slade (also a contender for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2 job), Andrew Adamson, Rupert Sanders, and Nanny McPhee Returns helmer Susanna White. There was also talk about Francis Lawrence. It’s unclear who stayed in or out as Lionsgate focused on Ross, who directed Pleasantville and Seabiscuit. He isn’t set yet, but he is the choice. Let the negotiating games begin. Mendes, for instance, bowed out of contention last Friday, and I’m told it was because the MGM picture is clearing up and it looks like production on 007 could begin by late summer or early fall, 2011 with Mendes at the helm and Daniel Craig back in the Aston Martin.
The Hunger Games takes place in the futuristic ruins of North America, which crumbled and was replaced by a Capitol and 12 districts. Each district is forced to supply 2 teenagers, between 12 and 18. They participate in The Hunger Games, a televised reality series that pits the contestants against one another in a battle to the death. The heroine is 16-year old Katniss Everdeen, a skilled hunter who’s adept with a bow and arrow. She replaces her younger sister, who was chosen in a lottery. She is joined by a baker’s son who is also chosen from her dirt poor home district. The subject matter is dark, but book has become a juggernaut: the final installment, Mockingjay, has sold over 450,000 since being published August 24 by Scholastic.
Seabiscuit is a contemptible piece of trash. How on earth can a principled producer like Nina think this is a good idea? GR is the worst of the studio hacks, so why give him one of edgier projects in the vein of KICK ASS, in terms of kid violence? Unbelievable!
Spits three times, walks away.
Wow…Seabiscuit was pretty good but Pleasantville is a firggin classic. I was rooting for Adamson, but i’m glad a studio did the right thing and got a high class filmmaker on a franchise.
Wow, harsh much. Now now Slade you don’t have to be a sore loser.
@ kabbe “the japs”? Really?
This will be interesting to adapt because these books are violent as hell. Not “Twilight” vampire biting violence, I’m talking about kids stabbing each other in the throat and getting blown to pieces violence.
a lot of idiots posting here. the japanese master, kurosawa, borrowed from westerns frequently.
I don’t think they are idiots (well, most of them aren’t), just haven’t seen enough movies to know.
The only thing Lions Gate ever got right was Tyler Perry.
‘Saw’ made money, but at what price? Rumor has it that the serial killer in Wisconsin was motivated by ‘Saw’. Make lots of money – degrade humanity.
The executives better pray there is no God.
They will go bankrupt over this new series, rightfully so.
Kudos to puhlease for RE-stating the obvious… apparently, Darren and Kabbe haven’t been exposed to Campbell or Polti, why hasn’t anyone mentioned Card’s Ender’s Game?! — the storytelling archetypes that one knows about from different cultures are the ones that transcend regional and cultural barriers. Any so-called lifting of storytelling is such a stupid argument, all that ultimately matters is how well the characters are executed… that’s what makes visual storytelling affective. You’ll see the same story told over and over again (how many times have you watched your favorite movie and others of its type?) if the characters who go through the story are different and are portrayed truthfully and identifiably.
As “violent” as the Hunger Games are, we live in a area of torture-porn masquerading as cinema, so we’ll get a healthy doses of the violence from the books. It might even be close to the good, old ultra-violence that Burgess and Kubrick foreshadowed. I just wonder if Beethoven’s 9th will be used in the teaser.
Wow…seabiscuit is pretty good but pleasantville is a friggin classic. Even though I wanted adamson, I’m glad the studio did the right thing and got a high class filmmaker on a franchise.
Props to lionsgate for actually nailing down a good director
Glad to see Lionsgate has finally decided to go with a quality filmmaker over the lowest common denominator.
Personally, I would hope they have unknown, NOT famous people play the lead parts – yes, I do agree they need a few famous names here and there – but I realllyyyy hope they don’t put someone famous as the lead roles I mean seriously? That would just ruin the whole movie for me.
Anyways, that’s just my opinion – but maybe I’m a tad bit biased.
Ahaa.
Carter Storm.