It looks like there's a chance that director Gary Ross won't be back to direct The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire. Why? you ask. Money. Yeah, the film has so far brought in more that $363 million dollars, but Lionsgate isn't willing to give the director a significant raise, which is what he's asking for. He made $3 million to write and direct the first film, and I think he should get a decent raise, especially after the movie performed so freakin' well at the box office. I think he deserves it.
The next film is currently being prepped, a script has been written by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), and they need to get the movie into production soon, as they've already set the release date for the sequel for November of 2013. If they don't get the movie into production soon, Fox will nab the film's star Jennifer Lawrence for the sequel to X-Men: First Class. If that happens, Catching Fire will most definitely be put on hold, so they need to lock down a director pretty fast.
They might as well just sign up Ross and pay him what he's asking for, or at least near the amount he's asking for. He's a solid investment. He proved he could handle the material and made a hell of a great movie that a lot of the fans enjoyed. Inside sources tell THR,
Ultimately, it will be difficult, and yet everybody will do the sane thing, which is to work it out. Everybody will end up unhappy in their own way. It's just the nature of the beast.
It sounds like they are going to try and work things out, but if Ross doesn't come back I don't think he's going to have a problem finding another movie to direct. Do you think Lionsgate should pay the director more money to direct the sequel, or would you like to see someone else take on the challenge of bringing it to life on the big screen?