Gary Ross is rumored to direct his first film in seven years, and it’s gonna be weird.
The four time Oscar-nominee — director of Seabiscuit and Pleasantville and co-writer of Big — may take the helm of The Hunger Games, an adaptation of the acclaimed young adult science-fiction novel from Suzanne Collins.
The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem — where North America once stood. Capitol, the government, holds a contest each year where they choose one boy and one girl to fight to the death. The contest demonstrates that no one is above Capitol’s power. The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, volunteers to take her sister’s place to fight in the contest.
Young adult, eh? Seems pretty heavy. At least there’s no vampires.
Anyway, if he does take the job, The Hunger Games is an odd fit for Ross. He has an excellent ability at capturing characters in their moments of uncertainty, and from the outline of this plot — it sounds like that’s the case. In each of his films, he uses the strangeness of the situations presented to his advantage. His characters somehow adapt to these and develop — sometimes so much they turn from black and white to color! (Sorry, we had to.) Our only concern is how the filmmaker will handle the violent battles within the narrative; something he’s never done before. Generally he chooses sentimentality over sadism and that credo won’t do Katniss much good, so here’s hoping we see a bit of Ross’ dark side in The Hunger Games!
Source: Coming Soon
