It looks like Gary Ross has traded in Katniss Everdeen for Peter Pan. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the director of The Hunger Games is in talks with Disney to venture to Never Land and bring the 2004 children’s adventure novel Peter and the Starcatchers to the big screen.
The story is a Peter Pan prequel that follows young Peter, who he meets a girl named Molly and goes on an adventure to keep a “trunk filled with magical starstuff” out of the hands of the evil Black Stache, a pirate who eventually loses his hand and becomes Captain Hook.
Written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Starcatchers was turned into an off-Broadway play of the same name minus the last “s” and later went on-Broadway to win five Tony Awards this year. Jesse Wigutow is adapting it for film, but you can expect Ross to do some work on the script as he has for all his films.
Ross’ next move after deciding not to make The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has been a hotly anticipated one, and it’s still unclear which project will be his next, even though Starcatchers has a good shot.
Back in May, Ross attached himself to Houdini, Lionsgate’s action-adventure take on the famous escape artist that supposes he was an international spy, and he also has the sci-fi film Outback with Carey Mulligan as well as Civil War film The Free State of Jones with Matt Damon attached.
So, he has a lot of options, all of which seem exciting. As always though we’ll keep you posted.
