15 Women Who Could Direct Catching Fire Instead of the Actual Candidates Power Grid By Aja RomanoApr 18th, 2012, 12:30 pm You are seeing this message because you have javascript disabled. To use our slideshows you need to enable javascript. There's no cross domain hackery or tracking voodoo, it's just some sweet jQuery animations. Please, think of the animations. In the meantime, enjoy the html version below. I guess. If that's your thing. Allow Us to Explain Given all the attention The Hunger Games franchise is getting for having a strong female protagonist, it's only natural that since director Gary Ross has backed out of Catching Fire, talk should turn to the question of whether any female directors have been included on the shortlist of his potential replacements. Plenty of people have already stepped up to the plate in proposing their own alternative lists of female directors, but we here could hardly pass up the chance to have our say as well: especially given that for perhaps the first time in history, there are genuinely so many amazing female directors to choose from. Debra Granik In explaining why he excludes Debra Granik, award-winning director of 2010's Winter's Bone, from his own list, Salon's Scott Mendelson writes, "There is no escaping the several similarities between Winter's Bone and The Hunger Games and I'd argue that choosing the helmer of the former is every bit as lazy as choosing Jennifer Lawrence to basically reprise her Oscar-nominated character in the first place." This strikes us as lazy logic. After all, no one ever questioned why Martin Scorsese kept directing Robert DeNiro in similar parts with similar plots, or why John Wayne kept playing the same role under John Ford's directorial hand for decades. Debra Granik's proven she can coach Jennifer Lawrence to award-winning performances. With so much riding on the continued success of the franchise, why not give her the chance to do it again? Besides, context is everything, and Granik's ability to sustain the intensity and suspense of Winter's Bone despite the deceptively simple plot bodes well for her ability to handle fast-moving action sequences like those in the Arena. Moreover, Catching Fire is a far more restrained story than its predecessor, with plenty of ensemble moments that feel more like politically rife boardroom drama than an action movie. Granik, with two critically acclaimed dramas and a Sundance Grand Prize under her belt, has the finesse and subtlety to develop Katniss's hero's journey, just as she did with Lawrence's character in Winter's Bone, without shirking on any of the film's more brutal moments or neglecting the fabulous ensemble cast. Karyn Kusama Another Sundance Grand Prize winner (for 2000's high-adrenaline Girlfight, her directorial debut), Karyn Kusama is no stranger to pairing empowered heroines with a good helping of violence. Though her 2005 follow-up Aeon Flux was a box-office flop, the witty, low-budget Jennifer's Body more than doubled its profits worldwide and gave an unapologetically feminist bent to classic titillating horror tropes. An Asian-American graduate of NYU's film school, Kusama has proven her ability to direct well-crafted genre films built around strong, resourceful female characters. After directing action-adventure, sci-fi, and horror, what could be a better use for her talents than a high-budget film franchise that combines elements of all three? What's even more exciting is the buzz around her latest project, The Rut, due to launch in 2013, which according to the LA Times, features a female heroine who "must learn the tricks of hunting and archery taught to her by her father after said father goes missing." Sound familiar, anyone? Seems like Kusama and a future Hunger Games installment would be a perfect fit. Lexi Alexander With all the talk about why women don't get to direct action movies, much less Marvel adaptations, it's easy to overlook the fact that one woman has done both: Lexi Alexander, the total badass who's not only an Oscar-nominated film director, screenwriter, and accomplished actress, but a kickboxing and karate expert who became world champion in both when she was only 19. If that's not enough all by itself to convince you she should have all the action movie franchises, consider that she already has a relationship with Hunger Games' own Lionsgate, albeit a rocky one. Asked to take on the thankless task of directing Marvel's Punisher: War Zone, a film which changed directions and directors numerous times and underwent a rocky series of rewrites before finally landing in her lap, Alexander managed to totally revamp the project's aesthetic. Alas, it wasn't enough to save the film, but it did prompt Roger Ebert to call the film "one of the best-made bad movies I've seen." Alexander was also drawn to the original source material, and strove -- successfully, according to fans of the series -- to remain faithful to it. All of which bodes well for any future adaptation she undertakes, especially one that isn't on life support by the time she gets her hands on it. And what could be better for the action sequences of the Arena bloodbath than to have an actual champion fighter at the helm? Agnieszka Holland You'd be hard-pressed to find a director with a longer list of accomplishments than Polish director Agnieszka Holland. As a screenwriter, she collaborated on Kieslowski's monumental Trois Coleurs trilogy, and directed/wrote two films which nabbed Oscar noms in quick succession: Angry Harvest for Best Foreign Film, and Europa Europa for Best Screenplay. During World War Two, Holland's grandparents were killed in the Warsaw Ghetto, and her mother was a member of the Polish Underground. Holland, who has directed in Poland, Germany, France, Britain, and the U.S., has something to bring to the pool of potential Hunger Games directors that many others don't: real-life experience of totalitarianism and extreme social dysfunction. With her track record of markedly political films, Holland would bring the same unflinching directorial eye to her view of the Capitol as she has brought to Nazi-occupied Europe in Europa and In Darkness, Communist Poland in Ekipa, and post-Katrina New Orleans in the TV series Treme. In the era of the high-tensity cable drama series, Holland has directed pivotal episodes of The Killing and The Wire, including the famous season three fight between Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell. In January of this year she received her third Oscar nod when In Darkness was nominated for Best Foreign Film. In addition to her proven ability to direct compelling realist dramas tinged with violence and political strife, she also directed the acclaimed 1993 adaptation of The Secret Garden, featuring wonderful performances from a young cast and cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins. Clearly Holland is more than capable of creating a faithful adaptation that remains true to the source material while being brutally honest, and her track record of internationally acclaimed films speaks for itself. All of which leads us to wonder: why the heck wasn't Lionsgate begging Agnieszka Holland to direct The Hunger Games in the first place? Dee Rees Another NYU grad, Dee Rees has been making her mark throughout the Oughts with a series of short films that landed her on Filmmaker Magazine's list of "25 New Faces of Independent Film." Her breakout success is Pariah, the story of an African-American teenager finding her voice as a poet and as a young lesbian. Pariah received raves from critics, snagged Best Independent Film from the Black Film Critics Circle, and gained Rees the 2011 Gotham Award for Breakthrough Director of the year. Rees' films have never shied away from complex social issues and real life drama. She supervised scripts for Spike Lee's Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke. Her documentary Eventual Salvation chronicles the struggles of her grandmother, Amma Smith, who escaped America and fled to Liberia during the civil rights movement and now struggles to rebuild her community there after its brutal civil war. And her film Colonial Gods tackles cross-cultural tensions, postcolonial struggles, and friendship among African immigrants in Wales. Rees would bring a fresh perspective to the Hunger Games franchise, but more importantly, she would bring the drive that allowed her to produce films like Pariah at a moment when no one in Hollywood would back a film about black queer youth. Given that The Hunger Games franchise has already come under fire for its lack of diversity, having a director like Rees at the helm would ensure a firm commitment not only to representation but to telling an authentic story. This is a woman who sold her own apartment in order to finance her films. If Lionsgate wants a director who can bring an independent spirit and a clear vision to its franchise, it need look no further than Dee Rees. Susanna White As brutal as the opening installment of The Hunger Games is, any adaptation of Catching Fire, which is full of loaded conversations and political intrigue, requires something of a deft touch for all the moments outside the Arena. Who better, then, to handle both the subtler moments and the violent ones than a director who's proven adept at both? Enter Susanna White. This BAFTA-winning director has helmed such diverse but acclaimed series as the BBC's period Dickens adaptation Bleak House and the violent war series Generation Kill. And while she's primarily known for her Emmy nominated adaptation of Jane Eyre, she's also assayed period gangster drama Boardwalk Empire and the Edwardian love triangle Parade's End, due out later this year and featuring an all-star including Benedict Cumberbatch and Miranda Richardson. White names Jane Campion's groundbreaking The Piano as the work that inspired her to be a filmmaker. In a Guardian interview, she notes, "Seeing the film, the power of its imagery and the delicacy of the way that emotion was handled in it, it felt in tune with who I was as a person and who I was as a filmmaker...The way the humvees move across the desert in Generation Kill, these very still, tranquil shots -- they're very like the shots of the piano on the beach." How much would we love to see her take on the Cornucopia bloodbath? A lot. Versatility? Check. Critical acclaim? Check. Ability to handle epic adaptations? Check, check, check. Throw in her experience working under television's tight budgets and even tighter production deadlines, and Susanna White should be on anyone's shortlist. Julie Taymor Although Julie Taymor's all-but spotless reputation has recently been mottled with her helming (and subsequent departure from) the accursed production of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, the fact remains that she is one of the most accomplished directors of the modern stage; after becoming the first woman ever to win the Tony for Best Direction of a Musical for 1997's The Lion King, she went on to direct a string of critically acclaimed musicals, opera productions, and a bevvy of critically acclaimed films, including 1999's stylishly violent Titus (an adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus) and 2002's biopic Frida. Not bad for a puppeteer and costume designer who majored in mythology and folklore at Oberlin. Since her transition from stage to film, Julie Taymor has had mixed critical success, and at times haggled with her studios and producers, but her visions have always been bold and often startling. 2010's The Tempest took the unprecedented step of changing the Duke of Prospero into a woman, Prospera, and launching its star Helen Mirren at Shakespeare's famous play with claws fully bared. While many critics resisted the implications of having a woman occupy a traditionally imperialist role, one critic called it "part fey and part punk," "a gorgeously cinematic" offering that leaves us yearning to see how Taymor could sink her teeth into the theatrical and epically Shakespearean climes of The Hunger Games. Lesli Linka Glatter As a dancer-turned-director whose first film, Tales of Meeting and Parting, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film, Lesli Linka Glatter has come a long way since her 1984 debut. In 1990, she directed several episodes of the landmark drama series Twin Peaks, which garnered her a Directors Guild nomination, then went on to direct a decade of beloved shows as diverse as NYPD Blue, The West Wing, and The Gilmore Girls. More recently, she's taken the helm of some of Hollywood's most popular and critically acclaimed series, House, The Good Wife, and True Blood, to name just a few. For her work on Mad Men, Glatter received an Emmy nomination and won the Director's Guild Award. Though she's directed few feature films, 1995's Now and Then featured an A-list female ensemble cast, and showed her ability to lead a strong female ensemble. In an interview last year with Variety, she emphasized the need for diversity in film production. "There are excellent women directors, African-American, Latino, Asian directors. Hire them." If we here at The Mary Sue had our way, Lesli, you'd be hired on the spot for The Hunger Games. Catherine Breillat Wait, wait, come back! We know what you're thinking. It's true that on the subject of her movies' esoteric themes and her own resistance to catering to the audience, French auteur Catherine Breillat once stated that "Van Gogh did not cut off his ear so Sotheby's could make a profit." But this challenge just makes us all the more curious to know what this visionary director, who in such films as 2009's Bluebeard and 2010's The Sleeping Beauty, spins fables and fairy tales into fantasy-laden explorations of femininity and sexuality, could do with a fierce yet smoldering story like Catching Fire. Though to date the filmmaker has only filmed in her native language, lots of European directors have successfully filmed in English -- Fassbinder and Verhoeven, for example -- and given Catherine Breillat's international recognition as an auteur of French cinema, she should have no trouble procuring the resources she needs to make the transition work. The primary challenge to getting Breillat behind the camera would be getting her to accept a mainstream project with guaranteed mass commercial appeal. Still, there are several aspects of this particular film that might appeal to her, primarily the mythology and folkloric elements of the story and setting. We'd love to see her weave the Hanging Tree myth into reality, and in her hands the surreal "voices in the forest" scene in the Arena would undoubtedly become something majestic and chilling. Now, if we can just get her to pick up the phone when Lionsgate calls. Hey. We can dream! Honorable Mentions For the final item on the list, we figured: why not pull out all the stops? Some of the following six film directors appear on other lists of Catching Fire potentials, but we liked them all too much to leave them off of our own: Lynne Ramsay, BAFTA-winning director of last year's harrowing We Need to Talk About Kevin, is on everyone's directorial It-list right now. She's on ours too. Although Patty Jenkins recently left Marvel's Thor 2 in a cloud of controversy, we think the Emmy-nominated director of The Killing and 2003's Monster would be a great choice to sink her talents into the Hunger Games. Though Kelly Reichardt is still a relative newcomer, with only four feature films under her belt, 2010's Meek's Cutoff was a knockout, combining the claustrophobic tension of the desert with electric performances from an ensemble cast including Michelle Williams and There Will Be Blood's Paul Dano. We'd love to see what she could do with the cutthroat beaches and jungles of Catching Fire's Arena. 1997's sultry, sexy Eve's Bayou revealed director Kasi Lemmons' talent for telling coming-of-age stories with teeth. If anyone could bring a sensuous touch to Catching Fire without sacrificing any of the film's edgier, more sinister moments, she could. Michelle MacLaren has come a long way since her directorial debut on the crew of the X-Files. This Emmy Winner (for a 2010 episode of Breaking Bad) has credits on series as diverse as NCIS and The Walking Dead. Could it be time to put that versatility to work on a major feature film? Gina Prince-Bythewood. This UCLA grad has only directed two feature films, but her work in television nabbed her an Emmy nomination, and 2000's Love & Basketball garnered her an Independent Spirit Award. Her latest, The Secret Life of Bees, won the NAACP Image Award and grossed over $50 million worldwide. Could she bring that same independent spirit to the Hunger Games? There's only one way to find out. Now that we've shared our list of potential fabulous female directors, what about yours? Can't believe we left off Mimi Leder or Jane Campion? Who else should make the short list? Let us know your thoughts! Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com Filed Under: Gary RossJulie TaymorPatty JenkinsThe Hunger GamesThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire Follow The Mary Sue: Previous PostNext Post Previous PostNext Post
