Writes Deadline, "Mendes bowed out of contention last Friday, and I’m told it was because the MGM picture is clearing up and it looks like production on 007 could begin by late summer or early fall, 2011 with Mendes at the helm and Daniel Craig back in the Aston Martin."
That should be something of a relief to 007 fans and another sign of how crowded summer 2012 is really getting to be (with, among many others, Star Trek 2 and The Avengers coming out during that period as well).
On The Hunger Games front, word is that Gary Ross will direct the first installment based on the books by Suzanne Collins. Deadline describes that book series as follows: "The Hunger Games takes place in the futuristic ruins of North America, which crumbled and was replaced by a Capitol and 12 districts. Each district is forced to supply 2 teenagers, between 12 and 18. They participate in The Hunger Games, a televised reality series that pits the contestants against one another in a battle to the death. The heroine is 16-year old Katniss Everdeen, a skilled hunter who’s adept with a bow and arrow. She replaces her younger sister, who was chosen in a lottery. She is joined by a baker's son who is also chosen from her dirt poor home district. The subject matter is dark, but book has become a juggernaut: the final installment, Mockingjay, has sold over 450,000 since being published August 24 by Scholastic."