Lionsgate Entertainment has found the director for their upcoming Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire. Francis Lawrence, who directed the films I Am Legend and Water For Elephants, will most likely sign the paperwork to confirm the deal late this week.
The change in directors comes after Hunger Games director Gary Ross could not settle a dispute with independent movie studio Lionsgate Entertainment over financial terms and the amount of time pre-production time he would have in order to make the sequel. Filming for Catching Fire is planned for August in order for the film to hit theaters by November 2013.
Other directors that were reportedly considered by the studio to film Catching Fire included Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Tony Scott (Unstoppable), Stephen Daldry (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) and Bennett Miller (Moneyball).
The final negotiations were apparently down to between Lawrence and Miller. Miller had to withdraw the opportunity to film the Hunger Games sequel due to a scheduling conflict. Miller begins filming Foxcatcher starring Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo and Steve Carrell this fall. Foxcatcher will follow the story of John du Pont, a man who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and killed Olympic wrestler David Schultz.
Bringing in a new director for such a major franchise is not unheard of but will definitely be no easy task. Lionsgate Entertainment’s subsidiary Summitt Entertainment did just that with their Twilight franchise, replacing director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) with Chris Weitz (New Moon) then David Slade (Eclipse) and finally Bill Condon (Breaking Dawn Part 1 & 2).
Filming Catching Fire is also going to be a tricky situation. Not only must the script be finalized and filming being by August but Catching Fire star Jennifer Lawrence (no relation to the director) must be done shooting by early January in order to be ready to film the sequel to X-Men: First Class in late January. Hunger Games director Gary Ross was well known to dive deep within a film’s script to rewrite and finalize any changes before moving into production. It was reported that Ross was planning to spend over two month on the Catching Fire script before leaving the project. Now Lawrence must find new writers if there are going to be any revisions to the Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) script.
Good luck Francis Lawrence! The next year is going to be a wild ride!
