Gary Ross and Lionsgate are to Resume Catching Fire Negotiations
Last week rumors spread like wildfire that the Hunger Games Director Gary Ross had left the franchise. Fans were shocked, only to find out that Ross had not formally walked away from Catching Fire. The incoming reports have left us in a state of emotional whiplash! Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the director and Lionsgate will be resuming negotiations for The Hunger Games sequel today, and will reach a conclusive decision by the end of this week.
Previously The Playlist had reported that Gary’s main issue with returning to franchise was fear of becoming a “filmaker who repeats himself.” However THR is reporting that the main issue for the director is the constraints of the tight filming schedule, with Jennifer Lawrence set to start filming X-Men in January.
Contrary to previous media reports, Ross—who returned from a vacation in Italy on Friday—has not exited the booming franchise. But he is not yet signed to return for the second installment,Catching Fire, and sources say the filmmaker is concerned about an ambitious production schedule that would require shooting to begin in August so that star Jennifer Lawrence can complete her work before she is due to start filming a sequel to Fox’s X-Men:First Class in January.
Sources describe the negotiations between Ross and Lionsgate as delicate. In addition to his concerns about the schedule, THR reported on Wednesday that the filmmaker would like a raise from the $3 million (and 5 percent of backend) that he received for the first film, which has passed $450 million in worldwide box office and received an 85 percent “fresh” rating from critics on Rottentomatoes.com. Ross, an accomplished screenwriter and director (Pleasantville,Seabiscuit) has several other projects in development and could choose to pursue any of them.
One option for Lionsgate is that it could attempt to “buy” more time for Ross, essentially paying Fox (or horsetrading in other ways) to bump its production schedule to accomodate the Hunger Games shoot. Or Lionsgate could move on and hire another filmmaker to take on the sequel, much like Twilight studio Summit Entertainment dropped Catherine Hardwick in favor of Chris Weitz for the second installment of that franchise.
Either way, the next week or so should bring some clarity to the future of Hollywood’s hottest movie franchises.
My head is spinning from the drama! What do you think?
Should Lionsgate try to accomodate Gary? Do we need him back?
source: THR
Related posts:
- OFFICIAL: Gary Ross Will Not Direct Catching Fire
- Gary Ross Has Not Formally Withdrawn From Catching Fire
- E! Online Analyzes What’s Keeping Gary Ross From Catching Fire
- RUMORED: Gary Ross NOT Directing Catching Fire
- Gary Ross Not Yet Signed On To Direct Catching Fire
Category: Catching Fire, Movie, News
i think Gary should direct Catching Fire because of how good the 1st movie was i think it wouldn’t be as good if Gary Ross didn’t direct it.
I think Gary was pretty amazing! He can’t leave us now, most directors might change the book to movie idea and SCREW it up
This is all kind of crazy! I think Lionsgate really needs to accomodate Gary. I at least want The Hunger Games and Catching Fire to be similar in style. Gary did an amazing job with The Hunger Games and I really want him back. Lionsgate made so much money that I think they can afford to spend more money now. Also not quite on topic, but a higher budget would be awesome as well! They should know by now that they will make their money back.
Gary Ross did a good job, but he could have done better. I say find another director.
I think Ross did a very good job on the film; while I understand some people’s complaints about the film, many were trivial/born out of inability to pay attention or from people who have not read the novels. I have watched several interviews of Ross concerning this film. In my opinion, we should keep him because it would be very difficult to find another director who has such a deep understanding of the messages and themes of Collins’ series.
Is that even a valid question? Of course we want Gary back! He was amazing and we need him to rock out worlds again!
The risk with another director is that you can’t avoid it being different. What if the style is better, what if it is worse? At least with Gary we know what we are getting, it was good and I want more of the same. The Harry Potter movies are a good example of this, the first movie was good, then they switched directors so many times some were worse but some were better and now you have a mod podge of movies that should flow together much better and don’t.
He did pretty good with the first movie but if he directs catching Fire I really hope he changes it up. I wasn’t a fan of the shaky-cam crap, it got annoying, and he left out some important things that were in the first book. Like Katniss telling Peeta she was pretending to love him to stay alive, was i the only person who thought that NEEDED to be in there? I mean taking Madge out didn’t bother me really, i understood that decision, but some of the others don’t make sense to me.I still hope Gary does direct the rest but i hope he changes a few things he did in the first movie.
I loved the first movie, and there was so much talk about who should direct the first movie and I don’t think that we need to repeat the waiting and the wondering on the second. I think we should just stick to Gary because he did a good enough job on the first movie.
PS: And I agree with Katie, Katniss telling Peeta that she was only pretending NEEDED to be in there. Peeta and Katniss seemed on good terms at the end and a big part of Catching Fire was that Katniss felt bad for Peeta.