You knew this list was going to turn up on the ‘Net soon enough, especially with negotiations continuing in a frantic attempt to keep director Gary Ross attached to the wildly successful Hunger Gamesfranchise.
So a lot of people are playing fantasy director, scheming about who could potentially take over and who would be a good fit.
I haven’t given this much thought myself, but apparently the site TBreak has, as it recently formulated a full list of nine directors who could be good potential replacements and possibly do a better job than Gary Ross.
So who are TBreak’s potential replacement ideas? Neill Blomkamp, Alfonso Cuaron, Duncan Jones, Joe Wright, David Slade, Andrew Niccol, Tom Tykwer, Kathryn Bigelow, and Steven Soderberg.
Okay, so going down the list, Blomkamp, director of District 9, is a good first choice. You may also recall he was going to direct the Halo movie, and when that fell apart he did District 9 instead, which he made for $30 million.
Curon, who directed the acclaimed Children of Men, is also a good choice, as he directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Duncan Jones is the son of David Bowie, and he also directed a smaller sci-fi gem Moon, while crossing over to bigger studio fare with Source Code.
The name Joe Wright didn’t immediately ring a bell, but he is the director Hanna, a young female assassin flick, so there’s some thematic similarities there, as well as Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, so the guy definitely knows how to handle a woman’s picture as well. David Slade, I know, more Twilight comparisons which Hunger Games is trying to avoid, but in addition to Eclipse, he also directed 30 Days of Night and Hard Candy.
Hate to make another Twilight reference, but Andrew Niccol recently took on The Host, Stephanie Meyer’s other book. I’m a big fan of Niccol’s, he wrote The Truman Show, and also penned and directed Gattaca. Tom Tykwer gave us Run Lola Run, and I’ve been a big fan of Kathryn Bigelow’s for years. Not a bad idea to have the director of The Hurt Locker take over Hunger Games, and she also did her own vision of a dystopian future with Strange Days back in 1995. (She’s currently making a movie about the hunt for Bin Laden, which should make a great follow up to Hurt Locker).
Soderberg is also a good choice in that he’s managed to navigate in and out of mainstream Hollywood quite well, although he’s also been threatening to retire, which would be a shame if he goes through with it. And here’s something I didn’t know, Soderberg is actually a good friend of Gary Ross.
As this story is being finalized, negotiations with Gary Ross are still going on for him to return to Hunger Games. It would be nice to see him return, but the franchise certainly won’t wait for any director, especially with Catching Fire slated to hit theaters in November 2013.
