Francis Lawrence on taking over The Hunger Games from Gary Ross

We haven’t heard a lot from new director of The Hunger Games, Francis Lawrence, but  MTV managed to check in him over taking over from Gary Ross, casting Finnick Odair and the challenges of working on location.

Taking over from Gary Ross: 

“I liked what Gary did a lot, but I have a different style than he does,” Lawrence explained. “So it was very easy for me to come in the room and sit down with the people involved in the movie and sort of say, ‘Here’s what I like about what Gary did that I would latch on to and hold onto and embrace, and here’s the way I would do it differently.’ The trickier thing, honestly for me, was sort of stepping into a world, and there’s crew members that were on the first movie, obviously an entire cast, all the people that are returning that I inherited. I was nervous about what they were going to feel… I think everybody in general was really gracious and worked really hard and ended up being really fun to work with. I think there were a couple of people that were really bummed that Gary wasn’t doing it, and it had less to do with the choice of me coming on than just Gary not doing it. They signed on with Gary; they’re friends with Gary; they like Gary. And I think there was definitely some sadness there.”

Finding Finnick:

“[Claflin] is very athletic, which is great. He’s in great shape. He’s very charismatic,” Lawrence said. “But I was also looking in the long term. There’s kind of a rouge-like quality to him in this book. And long term, he’s actually an emotional character and a very loyal character and a character who’s in love; a character who experienced quite a lot of sadness. And he was really able to tap into that, as well as being really charming and sexy and handsome as hell.”

More on Haymitch:

“One of the things that we wanted to dive into a little more… is the whole idea of PTSD, and one of the big things for [author] Suzanne[Collins] is just sort of the idea of the consequences of war as kind of one of the backbone theme of the entire series,” Lawrence said. “One of the things I really like about this book is you start to see kind of why Haymitch is the way he is, why people are the way they are, so he and I did a fair amount of work in terms of that, in terms of understanding PTSD and how to work with somebody with post-traumatic stress. Also we started messing around a lot with some real humanity in Haymitch because he can be quite cynical and sarcastic at times. But I think there’s a more human side to him in this one as well.

Working in the Arena:

“The arena stuff is pretty tricky… just because the sort of center of the arena where the cornucopia exists and the water and the spokes. The circular beach with the jungle around it doesn’t exist, so we have to sort of piece it all together,” he explained. “And you know even though shooting in Hawaii sounds like a lot of fun, it’s pretty tricky when you’re in the beach and waves and tides. Our set got washed away one day by the tide, and then… shooting in the jungle where there’s bugs and mud and rain. The days are short, so you don’t have much time, and you’re starting to lug around 100-pound IMAX cameras.”

You can check out the rest of the interview at MTV.

Related posts:

1. VIDEO: Elizabeth Banks talks Gary Ross and Francis Lawrence
2. Josh Hutcherson talks Francis Lawrence and Gary Ross with EW
3. Liam Hemsworth Comments on Gary Ross and Francis Lawrence
4. Parade’s Interviews with Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Gary Ross
5. The Hunger Games Director Gary Ross chats with Vanity Fair

Tags: featured, francis lawrence, Gary Ross, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Category: Catching Fire, Movie, News