Last week I reported Lionsgate would announce their choice of director for the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games late this week. Ahead of schedule, Deadline has announced Gary Ross (Pleasantville and Seabiscuit) is in talks to helm the project, which Lionsgate hopes will be the next franchise to pull in both adult and tween audiences.
Other contenders included David Slade, Sam Mendes, Andrew Adamson, Rupert Sanders, and Susanna White. The film is a hot commodity with hopes it could revive Lionsgate the way Twilight did Summit Entertainment. In a Hollywood still wounded by the economy, many directors were vying for this property. However, Mendes dropped out late last week over news that the long-awaited Bond film could be back on track with production to begin as early as next summer.
The Hunger Games is set in a dark future where teens are proffered from each territory of the crumbled United States to compete in a televised battle to the death called The Hunger Games. The story follows Katniss Everdeen, a talented archer and huntress. She enters to games in lieu of her sister, and once there must fight to survive and maintain her humanity.
The books have proved insanely popular with the latest installment Mocking Jay selling over 450,000 since it’s release on August 24. Understandably, Lionsgate is betting on an avid fan following for the film(s). Screenwriter Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, State of Play) has polished the first draft penned by author Suzanne Collins, though no further details have been released as the script is highly guarded.
We’ll bring you more updates as they come.
Do you think Ross and Ray are a good fit for The Hunger Games?