Now that Catching Fire finally has a director confirmed, it seems the project is moving forward. Lionsgate is now bringing in screenwriter Michael Arndt to rewrite the initial draft for the film adaptation.

The first draft came from Simon Beaufoy, and as he is already an Oscar-winning screenwriter, the re-write should be relatively painless.

The new screenwriter, Arndt has also done well making a name for himself. He previously wrote the screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine, which earned him an Academy Award. He also penned the screenplay for Toy Story 3, contributed to the writing for Rock of Ages, and also did a refurbishing of Disney’s Snow White-inspired martial arts epic, Order of Seven – and is handling the Mouse House’s impending Phineas and Ferb movie.

Author of the series, Suzanne Collins has already confirmed that she has had a hand in adapting her novel into the screenplay for the film. After writing the first draft of the script, Beaufoy confirmed that he handed the script over to Collins for her to review.

Things always do have to change otherwise there’s always something very flat about very faithful adaptations. But on the other hand, there’s an extremely loyal fan base and readership and you just have to be careful of how many liberties you do take. So fortunately Suzanne is here to help me… she’ll tell me, ‘You can’t do that. You must do this.’ Because there are some things that are sacrosanct to her readers and she knows them very well and she’ll let me know.”

It isn’t clear as of yet, whether or not Collins will play such a direct writing role with Catching Fire as she did with The Hunger Games. However, it is good news to fans that she has at least helped create the script for the film.

With all the actors returning, and Collins helping with the script, it appears the second film of the series is finally materializing.

Catching Fire remains scheduled to begin a theatrical release in the U.S. on November 22nd, 2013.

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