Lionsgate Wants Oscar Winner for Catching Fire Screenplay – The Hunger Games Sequel

Lions Gate has huge plans for The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire. Deadline.com is reporting that while they are keeping the same director (Gary Ross), they are looking for an Oscar winning writer to bring the story to life. Here is what they are claiming to happen and whom they hope will write the screenplay for them.

The mini-major is courting Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy to write Catching Fire, the second installment of the three book series that tracks the life and death adventures of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). I’m told that Gary Ross, who directed The Hunger Games, is coming back for the sequel. He originally intended to write the outline for the second film and script it with author Suzanne Collins (they teamed to do a lot of writing on the first film), but the post production schedule on The Hunger Games has made that difficult. The film opens March 23. There is no start date on the sequel, but it is high priority. Ross and producers Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik then focused on Beaufoy. Negotiations haven’t begun yet, but Lionsgate is pushing hard for Beaufoy.

I don’t know about an Oscar winner, but I am sure they will find someone worthy. I think they need to keep their hopes realistic and it feels like hoping for an Oscar winner does not fit with that mission. The stories are good enough, they just need someone who can execute it to perfection. Maybe one of the Twilight screenwriters could do it or even they could find a fairly well known writer to help out. However, for a chance of an Oscar winner to help out is pretty slim since the first movie has yet to even open!

Do you think Lions Gate is pushing their luck? I do and I hate to say that. They know they have the talent and a great story, but for them to think it will become a huge success this early on is a bit strange. Let alone to expect an Oscar winner to say yes so soon. Maybe once it opens on March 23rd and they get to see their goal, then it could happen. But the rush is not going to help out with the movie at all.

article source-Deadline & The Hob