The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Forum

The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, reportedly has a new director attached, and it is (drumrollll…..) Francis Lawrence? On first glance I find nothing overtly wrong with Francis Lawrence as a choice, and I think the idea of a director with music video experience could bring some very interesting visuals to the second book (which has an arguably much more drawn out, and less exciting story than the first), however while he can do post-apocalyptic action pretty well (I Am Legend), he is also the guy that did Water for Elephants…and Constantine.

I think when we kept hearing rumors of directors that had a true auteur style and voice, (Joss Whedon, David Fincher or Alfonso Cuaron) it got fans excited. I just don't know that this a choice that really gets me all fired up (sorry, I did it again). It feels like a decision they made because they had to rush the film in to production to capitalize on the shooting schedule. I believe that this book is going to be much harder to adapt, than the first one was, so I hope he can pull it off so the series can have legs. And if nothing else, let's hope that Lawrence will get rid of some of that annoying-as-hell shaky cam so the movie can breathe a little.

Somehow Water For Elephants really worries me. I don't want the love story to overshadow the rest of the film. But I wouldn't mind the dark style of Legend of Constantine.

I don't think he is a good director, I think he has some good ideas but doesn't really go through with them. Anyway the second (and third) book is pretty bad so I don't really expect much of this film even if it had a better director.

Also you linked to the wrong Francis Lawrence :)

Francis Lawrence has one credit: Porky's II: The Next Day as Klan Member.

A disappointing choice, especially since I think Catching Fire is a sub-par book at best, with an exciting third act, and a lot of boring shit about Katniss having to protect Peeta before that. It would take a good director to make this film interesting, and I doubt that he is it.

@Mr_skeleton The Porky's II director might be kind of great though, right? (fixed)

Constantine is a huge guilty pleasure of mine...

Constatine is defiantly a watchable movie I don't care for the other two though.Sounds like he a cheap middle of the road director that won't rock the boat much. Hopefully he ditches the shaky cam stuff.

I still think Constantine was a pretty decent flick considering what I'm sure were huge "notes" that had to be taken from the studio. Considering that, I feel sorry for this dude that he's tasked with directing this bore of a book.

Although, I guess it's the best case scenario, because it would have been a giant waste of time for Whedon, Fincher, Cuaron, etc.

You fixed the link in the text but the article is filed under the wrong Francis Lawrence, just like the Dick Clark one. Both of them only share the same name with one other movie credit on the site, and both of those don't have pictures, and you chose them instead. Odd. You should be looking at the credit lists on both pages, but if you're just going to quickly decide by looking in the search results, why not assume the ones with pictures are the real ones?

To be fair Rorie and some of the other writers had a tendency to file their articles under the wrong database entries quite often. It's something that's always bothered me, kind of a pet peeve but it really is annoying. For example, Godoski's Liz Taylor eulogy is STILL filed under the wrong entry. It's annoying because when I want to look up what Screened had to say about Liz Taylor's passing, it's not listed in the news section of her database entry. I have to go out of my way to find it again. And besides it just looks bad and is embarrassing for the site.

With the dawning of a new Screened, this is something I would like to see change. We should have a specific request thread in the forum to complain about misfiling in articles.

I'm not the biggest fan of his work, but I don't hate it either. Could turn out alright

Constantine was awesome. I Am Legend is a well-made movie saddled with a poor script.

...so I imagine he's a good fit.

I must say, I wanted to like Constantine, for my intermittent reading of the comics have yielded agreeable results, but I couldn't stand the film. Keanu Reeves just doesn't have the acting efficacy required or the necessary physicality to pull of a 'weathered, cynical, and gruff' character; the film needed someone more inherently dishevelled and beleaguered-looking. To be fair, I do like Reeves, but his acting ability is austerely restricted.