Gary Ross appears out of The Hunger Games sequel (maybe not)
by Doc on Apr.06, 2012, under Movies
As we alluded to Wednesday, it now appears that writer/director Gary Ross is walking away from directing the sequel to The Hunger Games.
The Playlist is reporting that he is walking away from the franchise – and although pretty much everyone expects that Lionsgate didn’t offer him much, they believe that his motivation to walk away may have been more than that, preferring to move on to something very different than working on the same thing for several years.
However, the other gotcha for filming the sequel – Jennifer Lawrence’s X-Men: First Class commitment – appears to have already been resolved between Lionsgate and Fox to allow Lawrence to shoot the next two books of The Hunger Games back to back. This could mean that the sequel to First Class – if it happens – won’t start filming for a while.
Update 4/7: Back the train up…it seems awfully quick for Ross to have backed out already, and it appears that it might be the case – Deadline says that he has NOT officially bowed out, and is currently on a family vacation. However, I’d expect a decision one way or another to happen soon if they hope to make their November, 2013 release date, and also not run into issues with Jennifer Lawrence’s schedule.