As fans of Hunger Games know all too well at this point, director Gary Ross's negotiations regarding him directing the next film in the franchise just aren't going well at all. While this has a great many fans upset about it, I actually have decided that I just don't care. Why? Well, let's look at the facts.
- SHAKY CAM. He wants three million dollars for a movie where, for part of it, he took a handheld handycam and followed JLaw around that North Carolina forest that looked like my backyard. Yep. If people are going to get paid $3 million for that, plus 5% backend, I should be rich.
- Everyone seems to be really upset about it because they think that Hunger Games was the greatest movie of the century (seriously, I follow a few Hunger Games blogs on my facebook and it's all "look at THG usurping Titanic and Wrath of the Titans and American Reunion and I just want to tell them all to shut the hell up.) But I want to point out that with the exception of Lord of the Rings (off the top of my head), a LOT of print-to-movie franchises have had different directors. Harry Potter, starting with POA, had Cuaron, who set the darker tone for the rest of the series. Then they switched to two more directors, with Yates ending the series (OotP through DHP2) I remember hating it when I was thirteen, but now it actually makes a lot of sense. The 'Avengers' series of Marvel movies all have different directors.
- These stupid websites that think that making a website called "Gary Ross Is Boss" or other stupid things like that are going to make Lionsgate up the ante and pay him more or get him to accept the lower pay that they're going to end up paying him because, let's face it, Lionsgate bit off more than they could chew here. Hashtags do not pay director's salaries.
- It has been established that Ross's favourite book in the series was the first one and that he's not nearly as passionate about the other ones as he was about Hunger Games. So if he's not as passionate, and would probably half-ass it, why do you want him directing it? Why not get someone who is more excited about the second book and will be willing to use more special effects instead of passing off the special effects to someone who made it look like a teenager with a macbook had done it? We've got a spinning cornucopia and blood rain that needs to be done properly and I don't think Ross can do it. Everyone says they love him but does anyone really know what all he's done? I doubt half the people that have seen Hunger Games have EVER seen Seabiscuit. EVER. And if they have seen Pleasantville, they probably don't remember it or get what it was about.
- It just drives me nuts that so many kids are so stuck on Gary Ross only because they thought that the movie was so true to the book, and maybe that's what bothers me the most. I've said it before, I'll say it again, books and movies should be mutually exclusive. A movie should have its own quirks and fun stuff, and then the books should have their own little things that make them unique. This always pisses people off because then they say "ugh, they left so much stuff out", but I think that in the case of Hunger Games, the problem was that Ross tried SO hard to stay close to the book that every little thing he left out was like a big gaping hole in the plot. Marvel didn't get shot in the neck. Buttercup was black and white (which makes no fucking sense.). The Mockingjay pin came from Katniss, to Prim, then back from Prim to Katniss. Gale was spot on as the boob of the series. Peeta didn't sell it for me at all, and while I love JLaw, she didn't exactly complete Katniss for me.The most perfect person in that film for me was a tie between Haymitch, Rue, and Caesar, because they were the most beautiful and accurate creatures of ever.
- Maybe this time we'll actually be able to hear the soundtrack instead of just having so. much. dead. silence. I didn't feel like I was watching a movie, and I didn't feel like I was living the Hunger Games through Katniss's eyes.
- Maybe the ending won't be terrible.
I feel like I'm the only person who has a considerable amount of criticism for this film and it's because it was so bad. I really hated it, I couldn't stand it. Biggest disappointment of the year. And I think that having a new director will really change that for me by the time Catching Fire comes around. Maybe Katniss will have a soul. Maybe Peeta will be more Peeta-y. Gale, don't change, you're the most perfect boob ever. Your angry, brooding stares at the camera as just about as good as your character can get.
And that's my rant on Gary Ross. Please leave the franchise and give it to someone who will give me a movie that's a combination of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and Total Recall or something. I felt like I was watching a student film from a kid that goes to one of those for-profit film schools and thinks that they're actually going to make it somewhere in the world with their associate's degree in film.
