Bennett Miller and Francis Lawrence Join ‘Catching Fire’ Directors Shortlist
With all the buzz around Cronenberg, Cuaron, and Innaritu last week, Playlist has two more names to add to the list of directors being considered for the director’s chair for ‘Catching Fire’.
Sources close to the project tell The Playlist that “Moneyball” helmer Bennet Miller and “I Am Legend” director Francis Lawrence are also in contention for the gig. Miller is coming off the very strong baseball drama (another project he picked up in flux when Steven Soderbergh’s version was axed at the last minute) which journeyed all the way to the Oscars with six nominations including Best Picture. There’s no doubt he’s got a handle on drama and emotional tone, and full-on action fare would be a new dynamic, but the filmmaker has proven himself extremely adaptable given his documentary beginnings.
Meanwhile, Lawrence is the more obvious fit here. The former music video director and filmmaker knows action and effects down cold, and can also handle the dramatic beats the story would need, evidenced by “Water For Elephants.” And perhaps more importantly, his schedule is free and he could jump into this right away and get cracking on firming up the Simon Beaufoy-penned script (which we hear needs work) and getting into pre-production mode for the film that could be lensing as early as August.
Source: ThePlaylist
Bennet Miller better not get it. I Am Legend was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Please not him!
Not too impressed with Francis Lawrence. I didn’t like “I Am Legend,” which actually is an adaptation of a classic sci-fi story. “Water for Elephants” was better, but it definitely lost some of the books charm. I actually really liked “Moneyball” from Miller.
Tanner, Miller directed “Moneyball”, Lawrence directed “I Am Legend”. I liked “Moneyball” a lot and could see Miller striking the right tone for the emotional parts. And I think he probably got some good experience with editing and building suspense by directing that film (making baseball thrilling to me is no easy feat) but I don’t know about the effects that would be required (I imagine the QQ arena will require a lot).
I didn’t see “I Am Legend” but Lawrence concerns me. “Water for Elephants” wasn’t very well-received, so I don’t have a lot of faith in his ability to handle dramatic/romantic content.
The biggest worry I have from this article is the offhand comment that the script is in need of work. That’s not unusual to read in an article of this type and there’s not really any way readers can disprove the assertion, but to have a director who hasn’t been immersed in the project and the story step in and work on major script rehab along with all the preproduction elements necessary to start filming by August is very worrisome.
Miller aint gonna happen
his new Film Foxcatcher begins filming in october so unless Lionsgate pushes CF shoot till 2013 it would cause a scheduling conflict
@HG
If they push production to 2013, then GR left due to money, and I think the script will be fixed once SC helps with the revisions.
Yup, this is more like what I predicted. A bunch of “nobodies” nobody cares about.
“Former music video director…his schedule is free”
There’s a resumé for ya. Wonderful.
Yeah, SERIOUSLY worried about the script. Is this industry code for “We have no idea what the hell we’re doing and no time to figure it out, but we’re going to milk this cash cow for all it’s worth?”
Water for Elephants, uggh. I didn’t read the book or see the movie but I recall that getting pretty bad reviews. I dunno why they would think that guy would be a good fit. I didn’t see I Am Legend either but at least I heard it was an o.k. movie. It’s only 69% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes though, which isn’t exactly awesome. Water for Elephants is only 61% fresh. Not exactly an stunning resume to me.
Moneyball is a good movie. I’m just not sure if that director can handle action. But I think I’d still feel much better about him than this Lawrence guy. At least Miller has good movies on his resume.
@SPM: It doesn’t even look like they’re gonna spend money on a nice stool to do the job, either. They’re just gonna milk it fast and haul ass to the dairy.
ALL of Francis Lawrence’s films are mediocre at best bordering on terrible. He’s butchered a comic series, a graphic novel, and a work of fiction. Now he’s shooting a tv movie. I bet LG could probably hire him for $25K and gift card ti Starbucks.
very cool! I enjoyed Moneyball! I wonder who will end up directing it though…
Also I just realized that neither of these directors have even one writing credit to their names on IMDB. Who is going to work on firming up Simon Beaufoy’s script then??
@Tanner I loved I AM LEGEND!!!
My biggest requirement for the director of the future movie(s) is that they MUST know and understand the story as much as Gary Ross did. I hope they can pull off the same magic he did. And Suzanne Collins needs to be involved in this is much as possible so she can keep them on track.
i haven’t seen anything by either of them (save for maybe parts of constantine, but keanu reeves puts me off anyway, so i can’t be objective about it)… i’d much prefer either of the previous three directors that were thrown around.
meanwhile, i’m with SPM– dead scared about the script right now. :S
so it is more or less confirmed that the script isn´t finished yet… that concerns me more than the director. Don´t get me wrong, it is crucial to find a good director who knows the characters and not the action are the most important. but to me it seems those three big names we´ve heard- cuaron, cronenber, iñarritu- have just been “leaked” on purpose. cuarón isn´t even available i am pretty sure of it. let´s remember a good directors aren´t likely to join a project with a rushed preproduction, a fixed shooting schedule, and an UNFINISHED SCRIPT! oh my god, i hope i am wrong
‘Short list’ gets longer, time to current CF release ticks down, we have no finnick or Johanna. I might cry
@C Gale Lover: The shortlist was 8 names long from the start, people were just reporting on 3 because those were the three they knew to be on the list.
i am quite anxious about this situation. and like other people have said, the script reportedly needing a lot of work, that really worries me. why didn´t they start working on it earlier? we´re definitely missing part of the story here, i know gary ross intended to write the script with suzanne collins, then got busy with postproduction for thg, so they hired simon beaufoy.the first draft was in suzanne´s hands before the premiere. scripts take time to be finalized and go through lots of revisions. obviously gary´s departure has been a terrible setback. but even if he was still on board, it feels like they would still be swimming against the tide. this is all so sad. i just wish they had had a little more faith in the success thg would be and had started working on catching fire earlier, signing the director, finishing the script, etc.
Oh gosh I am nervous
People chill. One passing unnamed source stating that the script needed work doesn’t spell disaster. They did start working on the script pretty early and the guy they hired won an Oscar for his previous adaptation. Gary, like most writer/directors probably wanted to do his own pass on the script, no matter what shape it was in. So maybe that’s where the “script needing work” started. Yes, him dropping out does puts everything in a spin, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. By the end of the month, we’ll know who the director is and that director will have nearly 4 months to prep the film. That is not an impossible timeframe.
I completely agree with parlor. Furthermore, I don’t mind either of these two directors to spell bad news. Ksc, in response to your comment about having no resume, moneyball received many Oscar noms and I personally think that I am legend and water for elephants were both beautiful, character driven films. I wouldn’t call that having no resume. Gary Ross wasn’t well liked at the beginning either. I think, just in fairness, thy we should give WHOMEVER gets the job a valid chance to prove our doubts wrong.
My gosh, sorry about my horrible grammar! It’s late and I can barely see the screen.
I have only seen ‘I Am Legend’ out of all those films and whilst I didn’t think it was amazing, I didn’t think it was bad either and in fairness untill ‘THG’ I wasn’t familiar with any of Ross’ works either; so the director being a ‘unknown’ isn’t the most worrying thing.
The script is probably in a reasonable condition so to speak and probably need tweaks and a couple of complete scene rewrites I’d say; whilst I am sure its nowhere near the desired end script but I ain’t going to stress over a process I have no idea about.
Bennet Miller gets my VOTE! ><V
Well I like both Water for Elephants and I Am Lengend, I thought both movies were beautiful and heartfelt. Francis Lawerence really had a beautiful vision in the films he has done. I would love to see him doing Catching Fire but I’m not sure he would have the time, doesn’t he direct Touch? With Keifer Sutherland.
I felt like I Am Legend was a fairly strong movie. It had good CGI work which I am assuming will be used a lot in Catching Fire. I haven’t seen Water for Elephants so can’t comment on it. I think Danny Boyle is still a good option since him and Simon Beaufoy already have good working/writing chemistry. I have a sliver of hope for JJ Abrams although I probably shouldn’t. He would be my top pick as I loved Lost (he only directed pilot but did create the show) but after 8mm he would probably be unwilling to pick up an already started series. I believe it has been previously mentioned he is already committed elsewhere. Sometimes I wonder if all these leaked names aren’t just a result of someone pulling names out of a hat because they seem totally random!!!
…is it too late to get Gary Ross back?
@crystal
So that means we now know 5 of the directors, that means their are three more unknowns right?
@tracyscgirl– i’d love jj abrams, but i presume he’s pretty busy right now with the star trek sequel.
my main concern with the script is not what simon beaufoy has already done with it because i know he’s a great screenwriter, but it’s more whether or not suzanne collins will be involved at all. i just wish they’d tell us if that’s at least their intention, that way i’d feel less anxious about this.
I’m not so sure I’d want either of them working on CF…no offense to them though
@Carla
I’m pretty sure it has been said that the new director will work with Collins on the revisions of the script, I don’t have a source but I remember reading it on several sites, so I’m sure Collins will be involved in some form.
I just thought some of you really crazy fans might want to know this but at Toys R’ Us they have life size cardboard cutouts of Peeta, Katniss, and Gale. THey also had Justin Bieber a while ago but I highly doubt anybody would really want that one.