The Hunger Games movie closes in on a director

DHD is reporting that Lionsgate has narrowed the list of potential directors for its hotly anticipated feature adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games down to three big names: Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabisquit), Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) and David Slade (Twilight: Eclipse, 30 Days of Night). Lionsgate is meeting with all three next week and should shortly make a decision.

Once the director is in place, the project will be full steam ahead – Lionsgate has already gotten the script rewrite from Billy Ray (State of Play, Earth 2) and casting will be up next.

Unfortunately there are financial concerns that could affect this project. Lionsgate is currently embroiled in a messy battle with corporate raider Carl Ichan, who is determined to wrest control from the company’s board so he can give his son a job. No, seriously – he has said that’s why he wants Lionsgate. With stock prices and the bottom line on everyone’s mind, I really hope they don’t shortchange this project. There is nothing worse than a cheap attempt at a big concept (Exhibit A: Eragon.)

Please, please do this book justice, Lionsgate…

Book Jacket:

Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.