Who will direct Catching Fire??

With director Gary Ross officially off Catching Fire, Lionsgate is scrambling for a new director. Like I've reported previously, production needs to start in late August or early September so that Jennifer Lawrence can film the movie before she's obligated to do the sequel to X-Men: First Class. If that doesn't happen, audiences are not going to see The Hunger Games sequel until at least summer 2014.

Lionsgate has made it abundantly clear however that they want a quality director. In a recent "Los Angeles Times" story producers stated they want to "find a director with enough credits and accolades to appeal to Collins (the author) who is (wait for it) MUCH MORE INTERESTED IN QUALITY FILMMAKING THAN BOX-OFFICE PROWESS. Well halle-freakin'-lujah! Somebody in Hollywood who gets it.

With that sentiment in mind, Lionsgate has already compiled an all-star list of at least eight directors who they may want to helm the project. Of those eight only three are known right now and they are David Cronenberg, Alfonso Cuaron, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

Those are three pretty impressive names.

Cuaron directed the fantastic film Children of Men and moreover has experience with tentpole franchises, having directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. While Inarritu has directed some strong films such as Babel and 21 Grams, I'm not sure if he's right for Catching Fire.

The guy who really intrigues me is David Cronenberg. Films like The Fly, Scanners, A History of Violence, and Eastern Promises all have a gritty realism and darkness to them. I think Cronenberg's style and vision perfectly match Collins' world. Cronenberg only has to worry about making a PG-13 film though because most of his films are R. Other than that he's my first choice.

Either way lets hope Lionsgate gets this settled soon and starts the spark for Catching Fire.