film as the reason for leaving the franchise, hence his decision to move on to direct Free State of Jones. Bennett Miller, Joe Cornish, Francis Lawrence and Juan Antonio Bayona were all being considered to direct the new film. On April 19, 2012, it was announced that Francis Lawrence was offered the director position for the film. Lionsgate officially announced Francis Lawrence as the director for Catching Fire on May 3, 2012. Two days later, it was reported that Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Little Miss Sunshine) was in talks to re-write the script for Catching Fire. On May 24, 2012, the film was renamed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Arndt was confirmed as the new writer of the script. Arndt was paid $400,000 a week for re-writing the script. According to sources, the adaptation needed to be done filming by December 2012 to fit Jennifer Lawrence's schedule. When X-Men: Days of Future Past lost its original director and shooting for the film was delayed till April 2013, Jennifer Lawrence was no longer needed to be filming in January 2013 and the shooting timeframe for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was extended to March (including several breaks due to the holidays and awards season). The film featured sequences filmed in the IMAX format. Casting In July 2012, it was announced that Jena Malone would portray Johanna Mason, that Amanda Plummer would portray Wiress, and that Philip Seymour Hoffman would portray Plutarch Heavensbee. Following this, in August 2012, it was announced that Lynn Cohen had been cast as Mags. Alan Ritchson was cast as Gloss on August 9, Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair on August 22, and Jeffrey Wright as Beetee on September 7. Filming Lawrence, Hutcherson and Hemsworth all dyed their hair for the movie once again. Lawrence went back into archery training in order to get in shape for the role while the supporting cast undertook training in preparation for the arena scenes. Production officially began on September 10, 2012, with shooting concluding for some of the cast on December 21, 2012. After the Christmas break, filming resumed for two weeks in mid January for some of the main cast and was placed on hold for awards season. Principal photography resumed and concluded in March 2013. Shooting first took place in and around metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia and then moved to Hawaii, to shoot the arena scenes. The cast