from the Hollywood Reporter
After a quick but fairly exhaustive search, Lionsgate has chosen Francis Lawrence to direct the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire.

Sources say that Lawrence will receive an official offer this afternoon. If he accepts and a deal can be worked out, he will replace Gary Ross, who directed the first installment of the hugely successful franchise.
The hunt has been a fast and furious one, with the field narrowing down to Lawrence, the director of I Am Legend and Water for Elephants, and Bennett Miller, the director of the acclaimed Brad Pitt baseball movie Moneyball. Both directors met with the studio today, according to sources, and Lionsgate executives have made their pick.
Lawrence was deemed the front-runner by observers simply because of his open schedule. Miller is working his way to a December start for Foxcatcher, a true-life project centering on John Du Pont that has been his focus for several years. Miller has even lined up Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffallo for the drama, and delaying it would have been a Herculean task.
Other directors on the shortlist of Catching Fire contenders were Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy), Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (Babel), Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre) and Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code).
Lawrence’s hiring raises the question of the state of the Catching Fire screenplay. Ross, who is a writer as much as he is a director, worked on the Hunger Games script and was planning on spending two months honing Fire, working from a script penned by Simon Beaufoy. The producers and new director now will need to keep working with Beaufoy or hire new scribes to hammer out the script before shooting begins.
The moviemakes are facing a ticking clock scenario, especially since they set a November 22, 2013 release date. Also coming into play is that shooing for Fire needs to be done by late December so that star Jennifer Lawrence, who is not related to the Austrian-born director, can have time to shoot the sequel to X-Men: First Class. Fox, which is making that movie, has an option on the actress that supercedes her Lionsgate commitment.
Lawrence is repped by CAA and 3 Arts and attorney Gretchen Rush.




I am Legend was pretty bad and i have heard bad things about Water for Elephants. His music video resume is impressive though
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Lawrence

I was hoping they would go with someone they allegedly had on the short list, like Nicholas Refn. However, having him direct a PG-13 adaptation of a teen novel would be about the equivalent of John Woo directing Mission Impossible 2.

I would pick Lawrence, as he has more of an eye for action overall, and the first movie kind of suffered IMO as a result of the lack thereof from that director. I loved the previous X-Men movie, but I am surprised they're going forward with another, as I presumed it was viewed as an underperformer.

Bennett Miller is a much better director than Francis Lawrence. Although it would have been a nice payday, good to hear he won't be wasting his time with this material. Really looking forward to Foxcatcher.

I was kind of looking forward to seeing what a better director could bring to the series... I didn't care for the books all that much, but I think, in the right hands, a lot of cool, interesting things could be done with the material. Of course there's going to be a lot of studio control on a series like this, but I imagine someone like Alfredson or Jones could have produced something significantly better than the first film.

I kind of hated I Am Legend, and didn't hear much good about Water for Elephants - but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

So why replace the director of the first movie? Did he want to leave? Seems dumb to replace someone who had a big part in making part 1 a hit.

He had commitments to another project and wasn't available in the timeframe that Lionsgate wanted to film the sequel.

was that movie even ready for production? from what i read he didn't want to spend the next 3 or 4 years on one franchise, and that he felt movie 2 would of been rushed

^As far as I know, it wasn't that Ross didn't want to spend the time, or that he had another project ready to go... it was just that Lionsgate NEEDS this movie to be done shooting before January when Jennifer Lawrence is contractually obligated to go off and shoot X-Men: First Class 2...Gary Ross felt that wasn't enough time to get a good script/get the production into shape, without it being a stress filled rush. I can't say I blame the guy - shooting for a locked release date seems about the worst thing they can do for this movie - best to keep the quality up even if it means waiting longer to rake in that cash.

I'm OK with Francis Lawrence doing this one - I liked both Constantine and I Am Legend. I wasn't thrilled with Water For Elephants but it did show that he may have a bit more range as a director than I had thought - so this decision does seem to make sense.

I was disappointed in the first movie, but the second book is my favorite so I'll probably catch it. If it also disappoints I won't bother with the third. I haven't seen I Am Legend or Water For Elephants so I have no opinion about this guy.

^ He also made Constantine, don't know if you saw that one. He's definitely more of a visual director than anything else. The X-Men thing is interesting, as given Mystique's character trait of shifting into others means that someone other than Lawrence could play the role most of the time. They don't need her for that character.

I'm good with that choice of director. The second movie needs to be quite abit more visually stimulating than the first, especially considering what they are able to do with the arena. Francis will do well.

also Francis doesnt do the hardcore shakey cam either

Constantine rocked, but I HATED I Am Legend.

I LOVED I Am Legend TILL the part where the woman and child come in. After that....predictable as fuck. Everything felt great till moment started and it just sped through to an ending.

The book is one of my favorite of all time. I could have forgiven them for setting it in New York, but the lame CGI creatures took me right out of the film. The ending also sucked. The ending in the book is one of the most fucked up ones out there and the film ignored it. I hear they're working on a possible sequel. Yikes.

Yeah. As much as I love the film till the moment I don't...the title still doesn't make sense. The book and it's story sure as hell made sense. Very fucked up in a way.

I do like Constantine.

I like everything of it but Shia Labeouf. I just hated how there's a kid character...and he's pretty worthless to the plot. LOVE LOVE LOVE Swinton in this.

That's the "official" story...the actual story is he wanted a raise/more points off the box office. Lionsgate basically told him to pack his bags...but studios let directors get away with "cover stories" about why they left. The old "burn no bridges" rule...you never know when you might be working again together.

Philip Seymour Hoffman offered role in Catching Fire:

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Philip-S...e-1048818.aspx

Francis Lawrence is not a particularly good director but if the script is right I don't think he's necessarily bad enough to ruin it. He's okay in getting a slight sense of atmosphere. Thought Constantine was lame as hell (minus Tilda Swinton, she was great as usual), I Am Legend was watchable despite a weak script and Water for Elephants was beautiful but boring as shit.

He's made competent-enough movies that have a moderate eye for visual aspects and pacing, but they also have a knack for diverging from the source material either in translation or tone, thus leaving them more hollow than they should be. Seeing his name does not instill confidence or interest, at least for me.

Simon Beaufoy is adapting the thing though, so who knows where it's going to end up.

I haven't watched The Hunger Games and don't really plan to cuz it's not really my thing but...I do read these threads.

Lawrence knows visual and atmosphere for sure. And that's it. I liked the look and design to Constantine though it had a very weak story. Tilda Swinton really raises that film's bar just by being in there. Peter Stormare adds a bit to the film but maybe goes too far. Also Shia LaBeouf's character was pointless and lacked impact.

I Am Legend was great till the the woman and kid come in. Then it all falls apart.

I just think this guy is a follower in terms of direction. He's a safe choice, makes stuff pretty and neat, won't bug the studio about much if anything.

The Hunger Games is worth watching, it's a well paced Disney rendition of Battle Royale with some clever commentary on the reality of "reality" tv. Horrible action scenes though.

I haven't read the books though.

While a bulk of Constantine looked fine, it's the shots that didn't that really glare in my mind. As if Lawrence gets a solid look but doesn't pull off enough memorable visuals to outweigh the memorably poor ones. And Swinton really was the highlight of that movie.

I agree he's a safe choice, he won't go to the extremes that some directors will go (as if you got a director to turn it into some sort of twisted masterpiece but completely alienated your target audience, kind of like if you had David Cronenberg or Lynch come in and direct it) and will make it perfectly pleasant to the script. So it better be a strong adaptation.

Those who haven't read the books will be disappointed since . Not a bad story but not groundbreaking either. The 3rd book was fantastic IMO.