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Kathryn Bigelow – Tribute for Hunger Games Director
By mrlousy
April 14, 2012 //
I recently found out that Gary Ross is out as director for any Hunger Games sequels. The names of a few directors in the running reported by the LA Times are Alfonso Cuaron, David Cronenberg and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. I really like all these directors but there was one name that immediately popped into my head when I heard the director's chair was open – Kathryn Bigelow.
I have been a Kathryn Bigelow fan since Near Dark, one of my favorite vampire movies. It was the first vampire movie I saw that portrayed vamps not as gorgeous glam sophisticates but rather just a gang of trashy thugs. It's visceral, darkly funny and has a great energy. I was into it and I was surprised it was directed by a woman. It made such an impression that I suspected and have been proven correct that Kathryn Bigelow is a badass.
KB's filmography has plenty of evidence that she could totally handle this gig:
War, politics – The Hurt Locker, K-9: The Widowmaker
Eye for casting – I believe she cast Bill Paxton and Lance Henrikson in Near Dark before they were in ex-husband James Cameron's Aliens
Great cameos – The Hurt Locker
Tricky love plot – The Weight of Water
Bit of the sci-fi – Strange Days
Knows her way around an action sequence and violence – all the above
I'm not saying I'm in love with all her movies but I can't say that about any of the other directors under consideration either. Of course, the bonus would be to have a great female director for a series of films that have a great female character. But that's really not my point.
She has an Oscar now so she has credibility, she's got a CV made for The Hunger Games and have you seen her? I want to see her standing next to Jennifer Lawrence! I think she would get Suzanne Collins' approval. She's got cred, does not make stereotypical female films, isn't a typical celebrity type and can handle the heavy stuff. Think of Mockingjay and The Hurt Locker and tell me this doesn't make sense. Katniss is a badass, doesn't she deserve a badass director?
Tags Catching Fire director, Kathryn Bigelow, Mockingjay, The Hunger Games
Categories Books, Movies, Young Adult
Raúl Zingle says:
I am a little stunned that her name wasn't floated in the article. That Oscar should at the very least place her as a contender. You've got all the broad-based proof in her filmography for the qualifications, Oscar aside. I was pretty meh on Gary Ross's direction, especially the shaky-cam and the unveiling of the Capitol, so I'm okay he's out. I wonder how much say Suzanne Collins has in choosing the director. It seems from the article like quite a bit. If they don't get Kathryn Bigelow for the next one, maybe they'll think of her with Mockingjay, which is essentially a sci-fi war movie. If the trilogy were a mini-series, like it is in my head, I would toss in Félix Enríquez Alcalá. He directed some key militaristic Battlestar Galactica episodes: Razor and Exodus Parts I and II, plus loads of other shows. And I still want Stanley Kubrick resurrected for all interior scenes of the Capitol.
My first choice would still be Kathryn Bigelow, and we are not alone –
http://screencrave.com/2012-04-11/the-10-best-directors-to-replace-gary-ross-in-catching-fire/ – but I don't get why Soderbergh keeps turning up, other than him working on the District 11 rebellion sequence. Contagion was not nearly as good as it could have been, and I think half the audience showed up hoping to see more of Gwyneth Paltrow looking horrible on her deathbed – their marketing seemed centered around hate-porn rather than story. The Oceans movies were really big but too slick for HG. I didn't know Bigelow was doing a movie about the Navy SEALS killing bin Laden. She seems to be getting pigeonholed already as the go-to director for stories about the U.S. wars of the last decade. Alejandro González Iñárritu does sprawling movies with intersecting stories, but I don't think they overreach. I would consider the suggested Ang Lee, but we cannot fully write off The Hulk, which was an absolutely terrible adaptation. I do think he might get better performances out the actors and he can do action as long as no Marvel comics character is in the frame. Cronenberg would be okay. I really like eXistenZ, which is the closest thing I can see in his output to HG, but my favorite movie of his is the crazy car-wreck fetish Crash, which is pretty far removed from dystopian merry-go-round terror of the 75th games. Okay, maybe – he excels in disturbing creatures, but usually they are crawling out of human orifices. I would put Guillermo del Toro (thinking of the Hellboy movies) and Alfonso Cuarón (thinking of Children of Men – especially near the end when they enter the deportation zone – and he did step into the Harry Potter series with Azkaban, which apparently people think was a disappointment, but I thought he was a good step up, though anyone would be better than the paint-by-numbers Chris Columbus, who is at the top of my No Way list.) So I've got a list as well, but I'd still choose Kathryn Bigelow first.
mrlousy says:
I think Del Toro would be the most visually imaginative without sacrificing the seriousness of the characters' situation or pandering to kids as in Pan's Labyrinth, which I loved. And Cuaron would be great. I remember him getting good reviews at the time for Azkaban and it is one of my favorite Potter movies.
Ang Lee had a huge misstep with The Hulk – it was awful. But he can do action and romance with strong female leads – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He just needs to be in his emotional wheelhouse and I don't think The Hulk had enough of an emotional core. I've never understood the appeal of The Hulk myself. Not when it was on TV and not of late. I like superhero movies but I just don't care about a mono-syllabic big green thing running amok. And Bruce Banner just seems like an annoying smarty-pants. I won't like you when you're mad? I don't even like you now.
But I still think Bigelow would be the best for other reasons. She would do well with Suzanne Collins and the fans. I don't know if Collins has as much approval as they say or if that's just put out there to get buy in from the fans but she must have some approval and I think Collins would approve of Bigelow. KB is a woman who operates outside the celebrity system, is independent and talented. I think the fans' biggest concern was that the books wouldn't be taken seriously and KB is a serious director. Plus KB hasn't much press since the Oscar win and even the lamest publicist could get good write-ups with this.
I am not qualified to comment on the announced choice of Francis Lawrence since I have only seen the music videos. The trailers for I Am Legend kept me at bay for fear of shaky cam and constant cutting. As for a music video director taking on a big franchise film, I look to McG, who directed Charlie's Angels (we saw this together at the Webster), which was frothy and fun; and Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle, which was absolute shit and unwatchable. McG has redeemed himself since, however, especially in choosing TV series to executive produce, especially Nikita. But wait, McG isn't doing Catching Fire, so why am I getting worked up? Why do you think they chose Francis Lawrence? Because he can make a deadline?