Francis Lawrence To Helm ‘Catching Fire’
The ‘Water For Elephants’ director is set to take the reins on ‘The Hunger Games’ sequel.
Since Garry Ross officially confirmed that he won't be at the helm of Catching Fire due to the tight turnaround required, the search for a replacement director has been fast and furious and it seems that Francis Lawrence has been selected as the man for the job.
Best known for directing last year's Water For Elephants (another adaptation with a huge fan following), as well as the sci-fi flicks, Constantine and I Am Legend, the director seems well schooled in slick, dystopian, big-scale projects.
In landing the gig (which observers have said was largely due to him simply having an open schedule), Lawrence beat out a swag of intriguing candidates including Moneyball director, Bennett Miller, who opted to concentrate on his upcoming John du Pont story, set to star Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum.
Other directors on the shortlist included Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre) and Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code).
We should reserve judgment, but it seems that any of these latter directors may have delivered a more unique film than the one Lawrence is likely to offer up, but when you're looking to swiftly follow up a sequel to a huge franchise, notions like "unique vision" seem to shrink in importance.
