The Hunger Games‘ Gary Ross To Direct Peter Pan And The Starcatchers For Disney

News, Projects

With Gary Ross dropping out of helming Catching Fire, the second in The Hunger Games series (citing the turnaround time as the biggest concern), he has been eying a number of projects. One was set to be The Secret Life of Houdini for Summit Entertainment, but it now seems that he will be doing Peter Pan and the Starcatchers with Disney.

The film is an adaptation of the novel by the author tandem of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. According to Deadline, a new draft of the script should be delivered to Disney this October. Even with a budget still to be determined Ross is confident that it’ll go into production sometime in 2013.

As for the story, it is a prequel of sorts to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, “a fantasy pirate adventure full that starts when Peter leads a group of orphaned boys sent to work as servants for King Zarboff. He winds up on a ship with Molly, who intrigues him with a story of how she is an apprentice Starcatcher, a group that collects starstuff that falls to Earth and gives power to those who find it. They must keep it away from the pirate Black Stache, as well as the king.”

The Pulse: Why do I get the feeling that this will become some yearly thing where Disney has a production that either serves as a prequel or a live-action version of one of their classic animated towns. It happened with Alice in Wonderland and next spring they’ll be releasing Oz: The Great and Powerful. Once the film goes into production it will again be another competition movie as Sony Pictures has Gavin O’Connor (Miracle, Warrior) attached to make Neverland, another Peter Pan flick.

What do you think? Does cinema need more Peter Pan?

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!