Aside from big fans of The Hunger Games (and we realise you are legion), was anyone truly worried about a potential clash between 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: First Class sequel and the shooting schedule for Games follow-up, Catching Fire? We can’t say it was exactly keeping us up at night, but now no one has to panic as Fox has shifted the X-Men shoot to January 2013.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox and Hunger Games studio Lionsgate had been acting like enraged cats for a while now, circling and hissing but never quite landing any claw strikes. Why the fuss? Well, Fox had the first option on Jennifer Lawrence, who played the young Mystique in First Class, and had seriously considered kicking off the sequel’s shoot in the autumn, with Matthew Vaughn once more directing. That would have been an issue for Lionsgate, as it wants Catching Fire shooting then, ready for a planned November 2013 release date. Since Lawrence is very slightly important to the Games films, there was some understandable tension. Now, though, she’ll be free to work on both movies and everyone goes home happy.
Hopefully, that will also include Games director Gary Ross, whose future with the franchise had been thrown into some mild doubt when it emerged that he was understandably asking for a raise after delivering a mega-hit at a thrifty budget. Frankly, it all sounds like negotiating teams leaking info to gain the upper hand, but he has yet to lock in a deal to return and there’s chatter about another Catherine Hardwicke / Twilight situation developing. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but current word is that he’ll probably be back…
brightcove.createExperiences();