Joss Whedon or Drew Goddard For ‘Catching Fire’?
At Tuesday night’s premiere of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’ss new flick ‘Cabin in the Woods’ Showblitz cheekily asked Joss and Drew whether they might be directing ‘Catching Fire’..
Joss:
“You know, I love the books and I really love the movie…I think Gary Ross [did] them all beautifully, and who wouldn’t want to work with that cast, honestly? And I think the second book is really exciting. But I’ve been walking in somebody else’s world for a long time. I’ve spent the last two years doing that and watching ‘Cabin’ reminds me what it’s like when something comes purely from your own brain, how much fun that is. It’d be tempting as hell, not that they’d necessarily ask, but no, I feel like it’s time to go back into the ‘Insane-o’ place and see what else comes out.”
Drew:
“I love Lionsgate so much that if they come to me with anything, I will always listen, because I can’t say enough good things about this company. I love them! I love the books and I loved the movie. I thought Gary did a phenomenal job and I’m excited to see part two.”
So I guess that’s a no 
But, as the saying goes, it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings! Guess we will all just have to sit tight and see who ends up helming ‘Catching Fire’.
Source: Showblitz.com
Knowing Lionsgate and their indie focused nature, Goddard would be my bet. I just want to see an Australian or European get the chance to make it big; so on that front bring in Peter Weir. If we just wanted to be plain ridiculous, you can’t go past Peter Jackson.
I see catching fire as more of an epic rather than the sci-fi that was hunger games, so Sir Jackson would e insane!
Pleaseeee Joss Whedon. He’s also amazing screenwriter and director.
Joss Whedon please!!
It would be amazing to see Joss take on the series!
How is Drew’s answer a “no”? His sounds pretty much like a “hell yeah I’d definitely consider it!” Joss on the other hand, I’m actually just surprised that he even considered it as much as he did!! Since it seems like he’s probably got a lot going on right now.
Actually probably by far the most interesting statement to come out of these two here is the one about Lionsgate from Drew:
“I love Lionsgate so much … I can’t say enough good things about this company.”
Hmmmm … should we be encouraged by that … that maybe Lionsgate hasn’t fallen completely to hell after the Summit merger? Who knows, really. Maybe Drew just hasn’t seen the affects of it personally yet. And I’m sure his experience with a small lower budget flick that’s NOT expected to break box office records would be much different than Gary’s experience, but still. It does give me a TEENSY bit of encouragement that maybe Satan himself hasn’t taken over Lionsgate. Maybe.
@rachel lol you´re so funny!!! Satan takeover!! i suggest you read an article on the la times about gary ross. they say he has a reputation of unreliability in the film industry. he is fickle and restless, common traits to talented people like him, but anyways… lionsgate is to blame in this situation, but certainly he´s no cannon fodder.
It sounds like Drew is interested. I don’t know if Lionsgate would ask him, but it would appear they have a good relationship.
This is off topic, but The Huffington Post is doing a poll on the best movie franchise, and The Hunger Games is currently losing to Indiana Jones, which in my opinion is overrated. Anyone want to try and change that?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/best-movie-franchise-hunger-games-harry-potter-star-wars_n_1417692.html?ref=entertainment
@roci – OMG No I haven’t seen that LA Times article!! I’ll google it. Sounds really interesting.
@roci – Dang I looked up articles about Gary Ross on latimes.com and I couldn’t find that one that you mentioned.
I did find two articles about him leaving the franchise, but not the particular one you mentioned. Maybe you have to be a subscriber to read that one or something.
So according to the Hollywood Reporter article yesterday, Ross backed out because Jen’s XMen contract would have forced him in to a tight 2013 release date, and he wanted to take his time with Catching Fire. I get where Gary is coming from, but the public has a short attention span, and delaying Catching Fire any further might allow another film (Ender’s Game in particular – have you seen the cast?!) to steal it’s thunder. There are plenty of capable directors out there, including these two. I just hope they hire someone asap.
while i love drew goddard as a writer (he wrote some of my favorite episodes of lost), i’d be wary of him as a director. he’s got virtually no experience in that field, save for the cabin in the woods which is JUST about to come out (and it’s being very well received, apparently), and catching fire is a big, big deal. i think bringing in someone younger and more edgy could be what catching fire needs… but it’s so risky. i mean, i’m all for giving the guy a chance, but would lionsgate? with these stakes?
@rachael i saw the article on thehob.org i think
I think if Joss would do any of the movies, it would be MJ2. Because you know he’d salivate over killing Prim. =P
@roci – Awesome thanks I found it!! http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/04/gary-ross-catching-fire-director-hunger-games-left-why.html
Great article; good to get some different perspective. I have been starting to suspect this myself just from reading other articles over the past few days (that Ross may simply not have the right personality type or working style to do a franchise where you have to crank them out one after the other).
@Rachael – the ending part of the interview after Drew’s quote was that his response was basically in a joking/laughing tone after being asked quite a ‘bait’ question. So I guess its a little out of context up above, sorry.
Joss Whedon will be the best i think cause he has directed soo many things. It’s like the new movie by him, The Cabin in the Woods. Things hunt them down. & also with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel he did so well with them.
Give us Joss Whedon please! He is an amazing writer and director and I think he would contribute soooo much to this series. Please say yes!!!
@Tash – Ahh ok. But he may have just been laughing at the fact that he knew they were baiting him with the question … to me it still sounds like it wouldn’t be too hard to convince him if Lionsgate asked!
As successful as thg is, it must suck to be a lionsgate exec right now. they are all probably kicking themselves in the head for not preventing this situation. it would have been so simple to sign gary on when he still wanted to do it. the film industry is very unpredictable and even cruel and unforgiving i would say. this is going to sound weird, but i actually feel sorry for lionsgate right now, they thought a man´s word was good enough and no papers needed to be signed to prove the director´s commitment to the next movie. they were soooo wrong!
JOSS WHEDON JOSS WHEDON.
This is the man who gave us FIREFLY, people!! JOSS WHEDON ALL THE WAY!!!!!!