Though it was sad to see Gary Ross leave the Hunger Games franchise after only one film, I was excited to see what the director would choose as his follow-up in the wake of the massive success of that franchise-starter.  He circled a few projects, including the adventure film The Secret Life of Houdini and a Peter Pan prequel called Peter and the Starcatchers, and it now appears that Ross has settled on the latter as his post-Hunger Games directorial project.  Hit the jump for more.

Gary Ross earned some clout when after directing the The Hunger Games, and while he didn’t return to direct the sequel due to the studio’s desire for a quick turnaround, he’s got other potential projects on the horizon.  We previously reported that he was in talks to helm an adaptation of The Secret Life of Houdini, and now THR reports that he’s circling an adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson‘s 2004 children’s adventure novel, Peter and the Starcatchers.

Hit the jump for more.

Looks like the upcoming Blu-Ray release for The Hunger Games will be chock full of goodies, according to some new trailers released by Lionsgate this week.  In them, star Jennifer Lawrence talks in great detail about the story and her training, and quite a bit about that 20 foot wall of fire (“I just knew I was going to run into a tree, and it’s going to explode, and this is how I’m going to die”).

According to the trailers, there will be 3 hours of behind-the-scenes footage, including interviews with director Gary Ross, the film’s stunt team, as well as some of the other stars (such as Josh Hutcherson).  There is an art, we learn, to running through the woods at high-speed and not crashing and burning … quite literally.  Hit the jump for the clips.

Could Tarzan become the next Snow White?  Hot off the heels of “The Great Snow White Race of 2012,” it appears that another possible Tarzan film has been thrown into the pile of gestating adaptations.  Constantain Films is currently in production on a 3D animated iteration of the “man raised by apes” story starring Kellan Lutz, and now it appears that three high profile directors are eyeing a separate Tarzan project at Warner Bros.  David Yates, who helmed the last four Harry Potter films for WB and Generation Kill’s Susanna White are said to be interested in the new Tarzan pic scripted by Adam Cozad (the Jack Ryan reboot).  Hit the jump for more. [Update: Gary Ross was previously reported to be in the mix but representatives say that he is not pursuing this project.]

It came as quite a shock when Gary Ross, who directed and shepherded the adaptation of The Hunger Games into a massively successful film that pleased both fans and critics, declined to direct the follow-up, Catching Fire.  Ross wasn’t keen on the idea of rushing pre-production in order to meet an August production start-date, so he politely bowed out of the series.  Ross takes his sweet time when choosing directorial projects (his only films as director are Hunger Games, Seabiscuit, and Pleasantville), but he’s likely been inundated with offers following the smashing success of the dystopian sci-fi adaptation.

Now it appears that Ross has settled on one of his post-Hunger Games projects, and it happens to be an adventure film about the secret life of Harry Houdini.  Hit the jump for more.

Lionsgate may have finally settled on a director for the sequel Catching Fire, but The Hunger Games is still busy doing gangbusters at the box office.  It was the number one film for the fourth weekend in a row (the first movie to do that since Avatar and The Dark Knight), and now fans will get another opportunity to see Gary Ross’ adaptation on the big, big screen.  Starting April 27th, the film will open again for a one-week limited run in select IMAX theaters.  Only about 100 IMAX theaters are participating in the engagement, but if your town is one of the lucky ones and you missed the film in the large-screen format the first time around, now’s your chance to catch it before the pic out of theaters.  Moreover, Lionsgate has released a new poster specifically designed to mark the occasion.  Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group Co-Chair Rob Friedman had this to say about the re-release:

“It’s wonderful that so many fans have expressed interest in seeing The Hunger Games in the immersive IMAX format, and many of these are repeat viewers. We’re delighted that IMAX has been able to accommodate them through this special one week re-engagement.”

Hopefully those checking out the IMAX version of The Hunger Games are going to actual IMAX theaters instead of reformatted regular theaters (it really does make a difference).  Hit the jump to check out the poster.

With Gary Ross’ non-return to direct the follow up of his blockbuster film, The Hunger Games, Lionsgate turned to a wish-list of directors that included David Cronenberg, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.  While those names were merely placeholders for a director with an arrow’s chance in Panem at getting the job (something we waxed poetic about in our recent podcast), two more names have cropped up that seem to have a bit more validity to them.  Reportedly, some conversations have already taken place with directors Bennett Miller (Moneyball) and Francis Lawrence (Constantine) to helm the sequel, Catching Fire.  Hit the jump for more on these potential candidates.

After a week-off due to personal reasons on my part, The Collision podcast has returned.  In our second episode, Adam Chitwood, Dave Trumbore, and I talk about Gary Ross‘ potential return to direct The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire.  We also give our thoughts on the first looks at Len Wiseman‘s remake of Total Recall, take a detour to Mirror Mirror, and come around to Aaron Sorkin‘s upcoming HBO TV series, The Newsroom.  Finally, we discuss American Reunion, and provide our weekly recommendations.  Once again, we encourage you to give us your thoughts on the podcast by either sounding off in the comments section or shooting a tweet @CollisionCast.  We’re still figuring out this podcast, and your feedback is invaluable in helping us shape the program.

Click here to listen to our latest episode, click here to listen to our previous episode, and click here to add The Collision to your RSS feed.  An iTunes link will be available soon.

We heard last week that despite Gary Ross‘ enthusiasm for the material, he will not return to direct Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games.  But there was a conflicting report that Ross, who did a bang-up job adapting the first movie, was likely to direct the sequel and would say so himself once he returned from vacation.  Sadly, that is not the case.  Ross released an official statement explaining why he will move on from the franchise:

“Despite recent speculation in the media, and after difficult but sincere consideration, I have decided not to direct Catching Fire. As a writer and a director, I simply don’t have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make because of the fixed and tight production schedule.”

Hit the jump for the full statement, plus Lionsgate’s response.

Detention is a wild and crazy hipster, teen horror-comedy that mixes in science fiction, body-swapping, time-travelling, 1990′s throwback, date flick and a murdering psycho, in only the way that director/co-writer Joseph Kahn (Torque) can.  Cinderhella is a slasher-movie killer who has seemingly come to life and is preying on the local students of Grizzly Lake, who are just trying to survive their final year of high school.  As the bodies pile up, Riley Jones (Shanley Caswell) and Clapton Davis (The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson) are in a deadly and outrageous race against time to save the world.

At the film’s press day, actor/executive producer Josh Hutcherson talked about his first experience behind the scenes on a film, what he thought of the script when he first read it, how grueling the shoot was, getting to learn how to ride on a unicycle, and what it was like to do his own stunts.  He also talked about how happy and excited he is over the box office success of The Hunger Games, and how he doesn’t think there’s a chance that director Gary Ross won’t return to helm the sequel, Catching Fire.  Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Earlier this week, we reported that The Hunger Games director Gary Ross was in tough negotiations with Lionsgate over returning to helm the sequel, Catching Fire.  Initial reports stated that Ross believed he was entitled to more money since he had delivered a critically and commercially successful adaptation of the popular novel.  However, The Playlist now reports that Ross has decided not to direct the sequel, but money was only part of his decision.  According to The Playlist, Ross didn’t want to repeat himself, he liked the first book the best (so does everyone else), and he’s already got a successful career as screenwriter and script doctor.  Ross now plans to develop a screenplay he’s already written, and will do so for a higher payday than he would have received for Catching Fire.

Hit the jump for more.  Catching Fire is slated to open on November 22, 2013. [Update: Deadline now reports that reports stating Ross has withdrawn from Catching Fire are untrue.  They say the director is currently on vacation and couldn't be reached, but multiple sources tell them that Ross is likely to return for the sequel.  We still have no official word from Ross or Lionsgate, so at this point we'll just have to wait and see, but this makes sense.  Ross lobbied ridiculously hard to get The Hunger Games job in the first place, and in his interview with Steve he sounded enthusiastic about coming back.]

As I said many times in my review, Gary Ross‘ direction was the strongest element of The Hunger Games.  But for Lionsgate, the movie’s ability to make a crazy amount of money was the strongest element of The Hunger Games.  Now, THR is reporting that Ross and the studio are locked in tense negotiations over his return to direct the sequel, Catching Fire.  Lead actors Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth are already signed for Catching Fire (and I imaging they’re also signed for the third installment, Mockingjay), but Ross doesn’t have a deal in place.  He was paid $3 million for co-writing and directing the film plus 5 percent on the back-end.  Unsurprisingly, he would like a raise on the sequel.

Hit the jump for more including why Catching Fire might not make its November 22, 2013 release date.

It’s safe to say that The Hunger Games is slightly popular, given that it carries the title of the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel, ever. I enjoyed the flick as a neat twist on the sci-fi genre, and was especially pleased with director Gary Ross’ interpretation of author Suzanne Collins’ dystopian future. However, the one thing lacking from this dystopian environment was a slew of Capitol-inspired PSAs, because what’s a dystopian society without a few encouraging/offensive PSAs? Now that wrong has been righted, as a number of incredibly funny PSA posters for The Hunger Games have hit the web.

Hit the jump to find out what to do in the event of a Tracker Jacker attack, and how to feel less guilty about killing children.

In this week’s opening paragraph I want to use a few lines to encourage reader feedback. The “Top 5″ weekly feature has been up and running since May of 2011 and has undergone very few presentation and/or aesthetic changes along the way. Because I’m thrilled when you, the reader, chooses to spend a few weekend minutes with me, I want to make sure that I’m consistently delivering something you look forward to checking out. That said, I invite any and all “Top 5″ feedback be e-mailed to me directly at colliderjason@gmail.com. Don’t worry, constructive criticism isn’t required. We could all use a good “you suck because you suck” sentiment to keep us honest every now and then.

Awaiting you in this week’s “Top 5″ is a slew of interviews for The Hunger Games, a recap of Michael Bay‘s campaign to turn Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into aliens so as to make them more believable (yes, you read that right), a NSFW international teaser trailer for David Cronenberg‘s Cosmopolis, a sparkling new Prometheus trailer, and all of our WonderCon 2012 coverage. In case you don’t know the drill, I’ll remind you that a brief recap and link to each follows after the jump.

Suzanne Collins‘ young adult novel The Hunger Games isn’t particularly well-written, but it’s undeniably cinematic.  Collins’ paints a strange, brutal world with a hint of social commentary wrapped in a melodramatic love story and intense action.  For the film adaptation, director Gary Ross has created an effective and memorable experience that’s deadly serious and seriously entertaining.  Rather than playing into the blockbuster elements of the novel, he takes a subdued approach where less is more and “more” is darkly and comically grotesque.  The movie remains tied to the weaker aspects of the book, especially the anti-climactic finish and lightweight social commentary, but terrific performances from the cast and Ross’ superb direction paint a potent and compelling picture.