Just one day after director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) was confirmed to direct Lionsgate’s Catching Fire, based on the second book in Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” series, The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Oscar-winning Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt is in talks to do some writing on the original screenplay written by another Oscar-winning writer, Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire).
The sequel to the movie that’s currently grossed $600 million worldwide is looking for a late summer start to allow Jennifer Lawrence to keep her commitment to appear in the 20th Century Fox sequel to X-Men: First Class, and if Arndt signs on, he will have to work hard to get the script ready in time for that planned start.
It may not be a coincidence that Arndt recently did work on Disney’s Order of the Seven, which Lawrence for many years was attached to direct.
