‘Catching Fire’ May Catch a New Writer

We're only a couple months away from the shooting of 'Catching Fire,' Lionsgate's hot in pre-production follow-up to this spring's smash hit 'The Hunger Games' and it looks the film needs a new writer. Simon Beaufoy has been the credited writer for a while, and we know that Francis Lawrence is attached to direct, but it looks like they're bringing in 'Little Miss Sunshine' scribe Michael Arndt to polish the script.

Though Arndt won the screenplay Oscar for 'Sunshine,' it's a film that hasn't aged particularly well - like a number of films that win awards and fall of the face of the map. Arndt moved on to Pixar, where he helped pen 'Toy Story 3,' which (as good as it is) is easily the weakest of that series.It's hard to know if this news - which comes from The Hollywood Reporter - is good or bad.

Right now Lionsgate is prepping to shoot at the end of summer because Jennifer Lawrence has a tight schedule now that she's a super-star, and is scheduled for 'X-Men' shortly afterwards. Though we can't blame Lionsgate for wanting to get this out as soon as possible, none of the decisions they've made so far inspire confidence. If Arndt comes on he'll be writing furiously, and it's quite possible he won't be the last writer to come on the shoot. At least with the success of 'Hunger Games' they can throw money at the problem.