The Hunger Games Movie: An Open Letter to Gary Ross
Entertainment Weekly has published an open letter to Gary Ross, now that it looks certain that he’ll be the director of The Hunger Games movie. Go and check it out…it pleads with Ross not to go down the grit line.
Dear Gary Ross: According to Variety, you’re all-but-officially the director of the Hunger Games movie. Congratulations! You haven’t directed a movie in seven years — Seabiscuit, saw it– and now you’re at the center of the next big young-adult franchise. Hooray! Now, I hope you won’t mind, but I have one minor request: Please, please, please, please, don’t make The Hunger Games gritty. Don’t shoot the movie with handheld cameras. Don’t bleach all the color out of the film stock until everything looks like rusted Depression-era gunmetal. Don’t forget: Katniss Everdeen is not Jason Bourne.
I have no problem with people voicing a preference, but it feels to me that this letter from Darren J. Franich is condescending and rude. And since when was Lord of the Rings a gritty movie, or Twilight for that matter? And why hit the director over the head with your own opinions? The tone of the letter from this self-proclaimed expert is smug and self important.
I hope the script and the direction of The Hunger Games movie sticks to the book as much as possible. It was one of those stories that you could see in your mind as a film. We’ve all had it play out in our imagination, so no doubt we all have some kind of idea of how we hope, or think, it will look. I agree with Darren Franich when he says how much he hates the hand-held camera faze we’ve been through in cinema in recent years, but is there really any need to be quite so agressive in stating your preference, in what’s supposed to be a letter to the director?
Are we all that uptight and afraid of how The Hunger Games will turn out that we have to admonish the director before he’s even been officially announced?
Perhaps it’s not what Darren J. Franich had to say to Mr Ross that bothered me, but the way he said it.
I would love to know what you think. If you were to write a letter to Gary Ross, what would you say?
The least we can say is that he is condescending and rude… Gary Ross isn’t officially the director yet (even though we can say he is ^^) and he’s already being criticized… Especially for “you haven’t directed a movie in seven year”. I don’t know Gary Ross’s work but if he’s talented, time won’t have changed that.
If I had to write a letter to him, I’d only ask for one thing: Please, please: stay true to the book!
if he does good on this , then this will be one of many great works to come… gary will be as good as(better) then the next guy(david slade, etc.)
I think Gary Ross will be great. Pleasantville was amazing!
He should definitely stay very true to the book, but I hope it’s not over done with trying to be all “edgy” and “cool” with the cinematography.
I hope the movie will be better than we all expected!
Out of all the directors lined up Gary Ross is my favourite choice. I’ve watched both Pleasantville and Seabiscuit and he did an amazing job on both movies. I even watched the bonus features, like the behind the scenes, and found that he is indepth and puts great quality into his work. I’m hoping that he will do the same for the hunger games!
that letter for me was kinda harsh, you could have made your point across without making it sound so… condesending.
I actually do like the handheld feel with the camera. Alot of my favourite shows have that, the rough but real feel. You could make it work with the Hunger Games easily. Just saying lol
I don’t even want them to make a movie. I mean I love the hunger games it’s my fav. book but I like to think what the characters look like not see them. and besides my mom will think the movie has to much violince and won’t let me go.
He seems like he’ll do a good job and keep the movie true to the book