It’s Official! Simon Beaufoy Is Working On CATCHING FIRE Script. THE HUNGER GAMES’ Gary Ross Will Return To Direct It

Last November, Deadline reported today that Lionsgate wanted Oscar winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) to write the script for CATCHING FIRE, which is the sequel to my most anticipated movie this year, THE HUNGER GAMES
Today, The Wrap confirmed that Beaufoy IS working on the script and that Gary Ross who directed THE HUNGER GAMES, would return to direct the sequel…
The first film was scripted by Ross in collaboration with the book’s author Suzanne Collins and the initial plan was for them to come up with the outline for the 2nd film but post-work schedule on THE HUNGER GAMES has made that difficult.
Ross will now supervise Beaufoy’s writing of the sequel’s script.
It’s not unusual for Hollywood to greenlight sequels way before the first installments arrive, WB does that quite often, now Lionsgate seems very confident about how THE HUNGER GAMES would perform once it hits theaters on March 23rd that they’ve moved forward with CATCHING FIRE which already has a theatrical release date: November 22nd, 2013