Francis Lawrence

Hey, listen.

Will Smith, after The Pursuit of Happiness, he's given himself over to strong filmmakers like, let me check the notes, Francis Lawrence, director of all those Hunger Games films, in I Am Legend, Peter Berg in Hancock.

We all saw Hancock when it came out, right? Being like, hey, maybe this will be the good one

i sure as hell did everyone saw hancock yeah

It says Go Go Garrity, number 47, Maine's Own.

let's talk about 2025's the long walk title of this episode is your men now tagline for this movie is the task is simple walk or die this was uh released by stephen king under his richard bachman pseudonym and adopted by jt mulner directed by francis lawrence who we know from the hunger games Ooh,

also dystopian futures or timelines.

Oh gosh.

That's the last one I remember hearing.

In August of 2022, they announced that Francis Lawrence-

Yes

... would direct.

Francis Lawrence, who do you-

Of Hunger Games.

Of Hunger Games.

I know exactly who Francis Lawrence is.

And joining Haymitch in the arena is a girl who's described as a sister to him A compulsive oddsmaker and the most uppity girl in town, Maysilee Donner, played by McKenna Grace.

That specific combination of personalities reveals a lot about Francis Lawrence's approach to casting and directing this franchise.

When you are tasked with casting a young version of a character made globally iconic by Woody Harrelson, the trap is looking for an impersonator.

Yeah, a young actor doing a cynical Southern drawl and pretending to be hungover would feel like a Saturday Night Live sketch.

The studio executives do not need to know who survives the 50th Games to know that millions of people will buy a ticket on opening weekend.

Exactly.

They brought back Francis Lawrence to direct and Billy Ray to write because they are proven engineers of this specific machine.

And their marketing strategy is incredibly aggressive.

You feel her profound isolation in the arena because you are just as blind to the outside world as she is.

But when you move that to film, directed first by Gary Ross and later Francis Lawrence, you have this massive opportunity to break those chains.

Here's where it gets really interesting.

The movie does something the book physically cannot do.

Yes.

They are bringing back Francis Lawrence to direct and produce.

They have producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson, and a screenplay by Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie.

Right.