Jennifer Lawrence Doesn’t Have To Choose Between Sequels But Gary Ross Will Not Direct Catching Fire

I would say she should take The Hunger Games over X-Men if she had to choose.

She got a lot of good feedback to THG, and I think she should make the most of it. If she does X-Men: First Class 2, chances are she’ll be put into inappropriate cleavage shots (as she was in First Class) and I cannot stand how Fox utterly destroyed Mystique’s character.

Ron Howard, Peter Jackson (I know…he’s too busy), or Andrew Adamson.

 I thought Mystique was fine in the movie. A certain improvement over the previous X-Men films. So in that way they actually improved her character. Luckily, Jennifer does not have to choose between films, that’s good to hear.

If I had my nerd-druthers, it’d be pretty freaking sweet–and horribly unrealistic–if Quentin Tarantino made Catching Fire into a flashy, stylistic actioner with tons of self-referential, weird dialogue (which would be infinitely better than the dreck Collins wrote.)

Since you brought up Christopher Nolan, how about he comes in and borrows from Memento/Inception and spins a narrative-distrust element into Catching Fire and Mockingbird? I can’t remember where, but I seem to recall a throwaway line somewhere in the books that says something about the psychoactive effects of Tracker Jacker venom lingering throughout the victim’s life. That’s certainly the case with Peeta. Considering all of Katniss’ paranoia, nightmares, hallucinations, delusions, and counter-intuitive logic from the narrative, why don’t we ever seriously question her trustworthiness as a narrator? So, let’s have Nolan get in there and try to put all of the events after the Tracker Jacker hive into question and see what comes out?

Either that or Stephen Spielberg, because Josh Hutcherson is a walking embodiment of Spielberg’s famous “Awe” face and it’d probably fit fairly well.

First:  ”Who would win in a fight, Katniss Everdeen or Raven Darkhölme (Mystique)?”  THAT WOULD MAKE FOR AN AWESOME COMIC.  I demand to see it.

Second:  While we’re throwing out dream directors, can we throw out some lady directors?  I suggested in another post Patty Jenkins (Monster, almost Thor 2) and Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker).

I think Kath is saying that Fox destroyed Mystique’s character throughout all four movies they featured her in.

I think she was a better character in First Class, but she wasn’t the right character.  Mystique always has the wheels turning, she’s always figuring out what she has to do to get ahead, and she does it.  (this includes throwing her baby over a cliff.)  I never saw that in the original trilogy or First Class.  Though, I guess First Class could be the first chapter in a character arch for her, but knowing Fox’s track record for super-hero movies I doubt it.

Yes Kathryn Bigelow! I was just trying to remember that name.

Guy Ritchie.

Frankly? Not sad about the director news  There was far too much shakey-cam going on in Hunger Games for my taste.  It was disorienting (which worked for some scenes but not others) and didn’t go nearly far enough to lend to a gritty feel.

Why do Katniss and Mystique have to fight? Can’t they team up and overthrow conventions together?

ooh, yes, or Kathryn Bigelow!

 I was thinking Patty Jenkins, too! Kathryn Bigelow, while great at action, is too “high-brow” if that makes any sense. I think Jenkins would be better at keeping Catching Fire tonally appropriate for a teen audience without dumbing things down.

Yeah, I almost got sick in the theater during the first half-hour. It calmed down a little bit later, but I would not be sad to see it go entirely for the sequels.

I think First Class was getting her to that point. What with all the learning to accept her appearance stuff. But I can understand why people would be skeptical that Fox would make the leap to Mystique being her fully badass self. 

 …in other words, you don’t like The Hunger Games and you want to make a completely different set of films and kill the franchise.

Ok, then. And we should care about this opinion… why?

I don’t want it to go entirely either….just cut well back so that it’s more effective and not giving us poor viewers bouts of sea sickness!

Same here, especially during the intro-to-district-12 sequences.  Why was the camera super-shakey when people WEREN’T killing each other?  Isn’t it usually reserved for action sequences?

Have to agree here, I felt the direction was–at best–competent, and at times completely distracting. Some decent character stuff but as far as fight scenes or even the opening stuff in District 12 … yes, could’ve been a lot better.

Sweet baby Jane, don’t get me started on the fight scene direction…particularly the cornucopia and DISTRICT 11.

Something tells me Debra Granik would be perfect for this.

I don’t suppose Alfonso Cuaron is available?

Totally agree. I think the director completely squandered the chance to play up the harsh contrast between District 12 and the Capitol by never giving us a good look at either. To me, that’s important scence-setting (and a big part of Katniss’s thoughts), not to mention a pretty high costume budget for the Capitol scenes that basically got trashed. It wasn’t a bad adaptation, but it could have been excellent. Time for a director who knows how to create worlds, rather than just show action.

Apparently, the stuff about Ross definitively being off of Hunger Games is just a bunch of internet rumors according to Deadline Hollywood: http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/sources-gary-ross-has-not-withdrawn-from-hunger-games-2/

It may be totally unrealistic, but I would toss out Peter Jackson as a name simply because he has been so successful at adapting books to high quality films.  THG =/= LOTR, tho.

Whoever it is, you want someone devoted to preserving the authors vision.  THG is at high risk of being commercialized (too much) by Hollywood.  You also want someone devoted to keeping Katniss as a real and strong character and not an action supermodel.  The books show all the main characters descending in to very dark places.  You might go looking for director who was very good with war films or intensely gritty drama.

First Class sequel?!? F*** YES!!!

I agree with ya 100% because Mystique is a bad guy, I mean bad girl, and I really hate having a villain in a hero’s place.

Of course, you’ll wonder if Catching Fire will be terrible because Gary Ross will be gone, but don’t forget that George Lucas didn’t direct The Empire Strikes Back after he was done with A New Hope, and The Empire Strikes Back is still the best in the Star Wars Saga.

It’s that, yes, but also a case of Mystique is supposed to be an adult at that point (i.e. if Wolverine is an adult, she should be too). It’s like they’ve completely ignored a huge chunk of her story for the sake of it, although I can sort of understand why.

I guess I just felt her inclusion into the film to be a bit pointless, almost. It seemed like they completely rewrote her for the sake of balancing the teams a bit.

Joss!

 Because Internet? No, but that’s really my only good answer for your question. You don’t have to care, because it’s just something some random person, whom you’ll never meet, wrote something in a comments section on a blog.

“Internet” is also possibly a good answer both for why you incorrectly inferred that I dislike the Hunger Games and want to kill the franchise and for why my comment didn’t properly convey the hyperbole and silliness I originally meant in writing it. None of those things will ever happen, could ever happen (seriously, can you imagine Katniss in an Adidas track suit with Onitsuka Tigers?) and that’s why it was supposed to be funny. Just some silly imagery on a Friday morning to garner a chuckle. Apparently it failed, apologies.