The director of The Hunger Games, Gary Ross, recently revealed why he did not direct the subsequent movies in the franchise. 2022 marks the ten-year anniversary of the release of The Hunger Games. The film had an immediate widespread cultural impact that still reverberates today. In the decade that followed its premiere, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth rose to stardom, many other dystopian YA book adaptation franchises were launched, and references from the movie became ubiquitous.
Following the release of The Hunger Games in 2012, three other movies in the franchise were released: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. While Ross directed the first movie, Francis Lawrence (also known for Water for Elephants and Red Sparrow) directed the following three movies. They were released on a tight schedule, with one movie coming out each year. When fans found out Catching Fire was directed by someone other than Ross, many were surprised, especially since he expressed interest in being involved with Catching Fire soon after The Hunger Games was released.
In an interview with THR celebrating The Hunger Games’ tenth anniversary, Ross confirmed that the reason for his departure from the franchise was scheduling. Given the quick turnaround the studio presented him with, he didn’t feel he had enough time to create a quality movie that honored his creative vision. He was given less than four months to both write and direct Catching Fire, which in movie terms, is not very much time at all. Read Ross' full quote below:
“I think what people didn’t realize is that I had two jobs. I wrote and I directed, and you do one of those things before you do the other. There was honestly no time to do both well in the three-and-a half months between movies so I moved on. I got to make Free State of Jones which not many people saw but remains one of my favorite pieces of work so - all good.”
It’s not uncommon for studios to switch out directors for different movies within franchises, or for directors to choose to leave franchises after one movie. Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first Twilight movie, also decided to leave The Twilight Saga because of a tight deadline, but was heartbroken that the studio didn’t hire any women directors for the subsequent movies. The movies directed by Lawrence had a different feel and style than The Hunger Games, in part due to an increased budget, but also because of different directorial visions. For example, Lawrence swapped out the handheld shaky camera cinematography style of The Hunger Games for a slicker, more action-focused approach.
There’s a new movie coming to The Hunger Games franchise, which will be directed by Lawrence, not Ross. It’s called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and it’s based on the prequel spin-off book by Suzanne Collins about President Snow’s backstory. Since Mockingjay Part 2 was released seven years ago, it will be interesting to see this dystopian universe on the big screen once again, especially given how the political landscape of the United States has shifted since 2015. While Ross won’t be involved, he has found success in recent years - he directed the hit women-driven heist movie Ocean’s 8. Ross hasn’t commented on the forthcoming prequel of The Hunger Games, but many are anticipating how the director will react to the latest installment in the series he kicked off.
Source: THR