Sci-Fi Storm

IMAX and Lionsgate announced today that The Hunger Games will return to over 100 IMAX theaters for one week starting April 27th, due to overwhelming demand.

The Hunger Games has grossed over $533 million globally since its launch on March 23, including $13.2 million generated from IMAX theatres in its original one week run.

“It’s wonderful that so many fans have expressed interest in seeing The Hunger Games in the immersive IMAX format, and many of these are repeat viewers,” said Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group Co-Chair Rob Friedman, adding “We’re delighted that IMAX has been able to accommodate them through this special one week re-engagement.”

“The Hunger Games has become a cultural phenomenon and we are thrilled to provide moviegoers with another opportunity to see this year’s most successful film in IMAX,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment.

The IMAX release of The Hunger Games has been digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images coupled with IMAX’s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

Shortly after I posted that the Hunger Games sequel search was down to two, apparently they made their choice – and it is Francis Lawrence, who previously directed Water for Elephants, I Am Legend and Constantine. It is expect he will receive an offer today.

Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games, is slated for a November 2013 release. It is expected the third book, Mockingjay, will be filmed at the same time.

Hearing from various sources that the necessarily quick search for a replacement director for Gary Ross – who decided not to continue with the sequel for The Hunger Games – has been narrowed down to two choices, neither of which have a lot of top-line directing titles under their belts but what they have were well known: Bennett Miller, who was nominated for an Oscar for Capote and more recently directed Moneyball; and Francis Lawrence, who most recently scored with Water for Elephants but also genre films I Am Legend and Constantine.

Of the two, Lawrence would seem to make sense given his experience in a post-apocalyptic-like setting of I Am Legend, and 2 genre films to zero for Miller.

Yahoo! Movies recently interviewed Mark Webb, the director of the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man, the reboot of the Marvel franchise starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and premieres June 30th.

On Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone’s instant chemistry:

“We screen tested them together, and she’s very funny and really quick and snappy. I remember the first time we screen tested them — I don’t think they’d met before, really — and he took a minute for him to get back up to speed with her because she was so funny. And then they really brought out really great parts of the other’s performance. Of course, it was there, and that’s why we cast that dynamic. It was really great to watch it on screen.”
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Remember those tracking numbers that showed Disney had not done it’s job properly in advertising John Carter, resulting in a $200+ million loss for the studio? Well, the numbers are out for Disney’s first Marvel film for which it is doing the distribution, The Avengers – and it looks like it has nothing to worry about this time.

Deadline is reporting that tracking numbers are “incredibly strong” ahead of the May 4th U.S. release – with great numbers from both men and women, both young and old, and is looking at a possible $100+ million domestic opening weekend. Plus, it will open a week earlier in several international markets, which should increase the buzz.

Speaking of early international openings – Universal’s Battleship opened in 5 locations yesterday and received previews in 11 more, more than a month ahead of its May 18th U.S. debut – and it is reported that it is doing very well in those markets so far, estimating a take of $7.4 million for yesterday alone and taking the #1 spot in many cases.

Battleship, from Peter Berg, was another risky, expensive movie – numbers place it between $200-250 million – and after the failure of John Carter, some believe this had the potential to follow it as a massive bust. From the trailers, I get the impression of it being Battle: Los Angeles on water – buy I don’t know if it suffers from similar marketing to John Carter – action scenes without context or story. I can say, however, that I’m looking forward to The Avengers much more.

It’s a bit of he-isn’t-he-is-he-isn’t, but it appears final this time: Gary Ross says he will not direct Catching Fire, the sequel to his highly-successful adaptation of The Hunger Games. And it appears the driving reason wasn’t that as rumored he didn’t want to “repeat himself” – but rather that Lionsgate’s schedule for the sequel is too aggressive.

“Despite recent speculation in the media, and after difficult but sincere consideration, I have decided not to direct Catching Fire,” Ross said in a release from Lionsgate late yesterday. “As a writer and a director, I simply don’t have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make because of the fixed and tight production schedule.”

This was apparently a bit of a surprise to the Lionsgate execs. But now we get to continue speculation on who will take over – and expect that to be REAL hot, as they don’t have a lot of time to spend on a search…

Summit Entertainment has postponed the release of adaptation Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game until November 1st, 2013, from an originally announced date of March 15th. No reason is known at the moment.

Ender’s Game stars Asa Butterfield (Hugo) as Ender, the child who is taken to be trained to help fight the insectoid Formics; Abigail Breslin (Zombieland, My Sister’s Keeper) as Ender’s sister, Valentine; Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones, Star Wars) as Colonel Graff, in charge in the Battle School; and Ben Kingsley (Hugo, Iron Man 3) as Mazer Rackham, a hero of the war.

Check out the first five minutes of the upcoming SF/Action movie Lockout, starring Guy Pearce and directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger. Lockout will be released Friday, April 13th.

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.

So, with The Hunger Games being such a huge hit, you would think that making the sequel would be a slam dunk, right?

That might not be the case, however.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, there are a couple problems that could get in the way.

First and biggest is the fact that unlike the cast, writer-director Gary Ross was never locked in for the sequel (in many cases, talent is locked in by contract for one or two sequels if made), and he is arguably a big part in what made the first movie such a success, which means he has a lot of clout in negotiations to direct a sequel. Shouldn’t be a problem still, right? Well, Lionsgate isn’t exactly known for their generosity in such matters. And it isn’t unheard of for studios to hand over the reins to another director, even in big franchises. For example, Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke was dropped after the first movie.

Ross apparently also described his original negotiations for handling The Hunger Games as “a terrible experience” – which doesn’t bode well heading into new negotiations.

An interesting bit from that article though mentions that Warner Bros. dropped Chris Columbus after the first two Harry Potter films. If memory serves, he chose to step away…although that could be code for “they didn’t offer me enough.” However, I think the 3 directors who succeeded him – Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, and David Yates – did amazing jobs, and perhaps outdid Columbus. So a change in director is not necessarily the death of a franchise.

The second complicating factor is Jennifer Lawrence. Although as mentioned the cast is already locked in, she’s also locked in to a sequel to another franchise – X-Men: First Class, where she plays Raven/Mystique, and it appears that that movie, if/when it films, has contractual precedence. That could mean negotiations with Marvel/Fox or delays that could further jeopardize the hoped-for November 2013 release date for Catching Fire.