"Don't smell her hair don't smell her hair don't smell her hair..." -Gary Ross's inner monolog

Director Gary Ross has officially put in his two-week notice with Lionsgate and is busy squirreling away as many office supplies as he can out of spite (what, you never did that?). While it’d be fun to think Ross tried to play hardball, and the studio told him to shove off since the movie he turned in was a blurry, incomprehensible mess and made $400 million anyway, we’re told that wasn’t the case.

Though recent trade reports have spun the story as being an issue mostly about money, that’s pretty much a small part of the motivation. Ross has never been a filmmaker that repeats himself (going from satire in “Pleasantville” to horse racing drama in “Seabiscuit” and action in “The Hunger Games”) and we’re told the burning desire simply isn’t there to spend another couple of years with Katniss in the Capitol (evidently, he also liked the first book best). And while the lowball salary offer probably didn’t help, Ross already has a fairly lucrative career as a screenwriter (and rewriter) and money isn’t really the issue. Simply put, the filmmaker is looking to change things up for his next effort.

While the details on what that project will be are still coming together, we’re told it will be something he has written that (ironically) will earn him a better payday that he would’ve received on “Catching Fire.” Essentially, it’s a win-win for Ross, who gets to move on to a project he developed for his fourth feature, and will allow him to do something different. [ThePlaylist]

Hmm, I don’t know what all this lowball stuff is about, because last we heard, Hollywood Reporter was reporting that he made $3 million, plus 5% of the back end on the first one. What’s the new job, counting GOLD, in the Goldman Sachs GOLD deparment?? No word on whether that means 5% of gross or 5% of net, but even in Hollywood, it would take some extremely creative accounting to make that 5% (of a movie that reportedly cost $78 million to make and has earned $377 million so far) worth less than “a f*ckload.” Granted I wear Cheetos-stained sweatpants to work, but that seems like a lot.

In semi-related news, here’s a picture of Jennifer Lawrence and her family’s reaction as her Oscar nomination for Winter’s Bone was announced. It’s pretty friggin adorable.

Her level of cuteness is practically Gosling-esque at this point.

[RollinStone via SuicideBlonde]