On Sept. 6, 2010, Gary Ross boarded a plane from Los Angeles for New York, carrying art boards and a seven-minute film he’d made with thousands of dollars of his own money.

Ross was nervous: He was about to meet with the top brass at Lionsgate and pitch himself as director of their most high-profile project, The Hunger Games. The then-53-year-old hadn’t made a film since Seabiscuit seven years earlier, and even though he was a four-time Oscar nominee, he was an unlikely candidate for what the independent studio hoped to be a major franchise.

“You wouldn’t look at a premise like Hunger Games and think Gary Ross,” he admits of the venture, based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling young-adult novel set in a futuristic America where a bright 16-year-old girl is forced to take part in gladiator-like combat — kill or be killed.

So Ross came prepared. “I had seven or eight concept artists put boards together,” he recalls, “and I interviewed my kids and a lot of their friends to hear what they thought about the book.”

For two hours, he laid out his vision, helped by stacks of images from artists including Max Beckmann that he’d lined around the walls and by the short film featuring his teenage twins, Claudia and Jack, explaining why the book meant so much to them.

“You could really feel his passion,” says producer Nina Jacobson, “and it was channeled through the young people in his life.”

Read more!  The High Stakes Behind ‘Hunger Games’ – The Hollywood Reporter.

Writer-director Gary Ross—a four-time Oscar nominee for writing (Big, Dave, and Seabiscuit) and for best picture (Seabiscuit)—will soon be out with The Hunger Games, which premieres in March and stars Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth. Ross, who is finishing up the film now, talked about the project with V.F.’s senior West Coast editor, Krista Smith—highlights from their chat:

Krista Smith: Tell me—how did you get into The Hunger Games?

 

Gary Ross: I read the book. My kids turned me on to it, and I went nuts. I guess, about a year ago. I literally read it and said, “I have to make the movie.”

 

And what’s been the best part so far?

 

You rarely get a tentpole that has this much emotional depth, this much character to dive into. The character of Katniss is . . . incredible. Suzanne [Collins, the author of the books,] did such an amazing job, and painted such a vivid character that I think for me and Jen. . . . It was just exciting every day. Not just from a pure filmmaking perspective, but also just in terms of the depth of the acting and exploring the character.

 

How did you get Jennifer to play Katniss?

 

I was just a fan. When you do what I do, any time you see an actor like this emerge—I think everybody’s head sort of snapped, you know? Both from Winter’s Bone and other work that she’s done, I was just always very aware of her.  And then I had a meeting with her, and I was just as impressed, and then she came in and read for us and she sort of blew me away.  But I wasn’t totally surprised, because I think that an actor like this comes along, you know, once a generation.

via hunger-games-gary-ross-jennifer-lawrence | Blogs | Vanity Fair.

As you know, the Hollywood Crush team has been holding “The Hunger Games” director Gary Ross hostage at our secret underground lair or, yknow, chatting with him over Skype, in order to get lots of inside skinny on next years most hotly anticipated book-to-big-screen project. And this time around, we asked Gary about one of the most critical elements of adapting this book for film: getting the right perspective, so that it packs an emotional punch beyond that of a mere, mindless action flick. And once again, Gary proved that hes got an understanding of the book right on a par with its most die-hard fans.

via Gary Ross On ‘The Hunger Games’ Perspective » Hollywood Crush.