Wait! GARY ROSS Isn’t Officially Out of ‘HUNGER GAMES’ Sequel Yet. Birds Chirp.
Pump those breaks! Despite news last week breaking that Gary Ross was taking his ball and going home when it came to the Hunger Games sequel, there’s still a chance we’ll get his shaky cam nonsense in Catching Fire.
Slashfilm:
When we contacted Lionsgate last week, the studio refused to confirm the original story about Ross’ leaving the franchise, raising some doubts about whether Ross had truly and officially left the project. Then, over the weekend, Deadline dismissed stories of Ross leaving the franchise as “simply not accurate,” though Ross himself was on a family vacation and could not be reached for comment. Now THR says Ross will be speaking with Lionsgate executives this week to talk about the sequel and the issues surrounding it. One possible roadblock, as we noted last week, is money. Ross is asking for a hefty raise from his paycheck for the first film, which came out to $3 million plus 5 percent of backend. While Deadline seems skeptical that Ross wouldn’t leave behind the biggest hit of his career over a lowball salary offer, Ross does have plenty of other projects to choose from should Lionsgate refuse to give him what he wants.
Another has to do with Catching Fire‘s shooting schedule. Because star Jennifer Lawrence is due on set for Fox’s X-Men: First Class sequel in January, Catching Fire would have to get underway by August. Ross has been working on a potential sequel with source material author Suzanne Collins since late last year, and we know that as of this January Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy was already hard at work on the screenplay. But there’s still no script locked in, which means everyone will have to scramble if cameras are to begin rolling in August. That is, unless Lionsgate bargains with Fox and gets X-Men pushed back to allow more time for Catching Fire.
Oh praise be! Do you care? Do any stalwart Hunger Games humpers really care who directs this? It isn’t rhetorical, I’m interested to know.