Lionsgate Offer Francis Lawrence The Hunger Games Catching Fire Sequel

If you could only dream, that might have been a little thing you might have said when rumours spread that David Cronenberg, Alfonso Cuaron , Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu , Joe Cornish , Juan Antonio Bayona, Tomas Alfredson, Cary Fukunaga and even son of Ziggy Stardust  Duncan Jones where all allegedly in the running for Catching Fire. A few days later 2 more names where added to the list, more realistic Moneyball’s Bennett Miller, Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) and late last night THR announced Lawrence has now been offered the directors chair.

It’s understood Miller was Lionsgate preferred option however his commitments elsewhere in Steve Carrell. Mark Ruffalo comedy Foxcatcher  a film he is currently prepping to start filming shortly. If Lawrence does accept the offer he wont have much time to catch a breath familiarize himself with Suzanne Collin’s world as the pre production is moving at such a fast pace, also makes you wonder if the film will fall victim the second film disappointment syndrome. Filming is due to start in a matter of months so that namesake Jennifer Lawrence be able to also film X-Men First Class sequel in January 2013. It’s believed that this was the main reason for The Hunger Games director Gary Ross for stepping down from the sequel, lack of prep time than monetary reasons and doubting his abilities to create similar level of quality film. Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy has written the script for Catching fire and its meant to be an adaptation that is very faithful to book version, which I’ve been told has many great cinematic moments but also has the same problems many book adaptations have as some parts of the story would be hard to adapt succesfully.

On record Francis Lawrence filmography may not be aspiring for some film fans however it isn’t that bad either, Gary Ross does look to have left the film in good working shape. So if Lawrence has the right people around him he shouldn’t have many problems and could do with job with ease. All will be revealed November 2013!