With The Twilight Saga and Harry Potter both winding up their cinematic runs in the next couple of years, it’s no surprise that a lot of attention is being focused on the movie version of The Hunger Games, the first book in Suzanne Collins’ YA sci-fi crossover trilogy about a teen girl forced to fight for her life in reality television gladitorial battles in a dystopian future US. Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Lionsgate, which owns the movie rights to the novel series, is close to choosing a director for the movie, and that it’ll be Seabiscuit‘s Gary Ross, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse‘s David Slade or Road to Perdition‘s Sam Mendes.
It’s an interesting threesome; Slade seems like a frontrunner, not only because of his Twilight heat, but because he’s also in the running to direct the second Wolverine movie for Fox. Mendes, meanwhile, had his chance at franchise directing stolen from him when MGM’s financial woes killed his Bond movie, and his selective filmography would lend the franchise some cinematic gravitas, perhaps. Ross must seem like the outsider, but it’s worth remembering that he was linked to Sony’s Spider-Man reboot for a long time, before Marc Webb was announced as director, so clearly he’s got something going for him, even if it’s just a good agent. According to Deadline, studio execs will meet with all three next week before making a decision. Fox, this’d be a great time to offer Slade that Wolverine gig.
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