For years, we’ve gotten teases that more movies set in the Hunger Games universe would happen. Today, Lionsgate announced that it is indeed official and we’ll be returning to the world of Panem.
The film will be a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy of books and based on the forthcoming book by Suzanne Collins titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, set to be released on May 19th. Much like J.K. Rowling did with the Fantastic Beasts movie adaptations, Collins will be writing the script treatment. However, Lionsgate is being smart and tapping Catching Fire co-writer Michael Arndt to write the adaptation. Fans of the last two films should be happy as Catching Fire and two-part Mockingjay director Francis Lawrence will be back on board to direct the prequel. Nina Jacobson, who produced all four previous films, will also be back as producer.
Unlike many project announcements, we actually know the rough outlines of the story for Ballad. Set many, many years before the events of The Hunger Games, the story follows an 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow when he’s picked to be a mentor for the tenth annual Hunger Games. It’s his shot at redemption and to restore the family name of Snow, which has fallen on hard times. If Snow can outcharm and outmaneuver his colleagues and train the winning tribute in the Hunger Games, the formerly grand house of Snow will be saved from ruin. But his elation at being granted such an honor quickly curdles when he learns the female tribute he’s meant to mentor and train hails from District 12, the poorest and lowest of the low. The humiliating assignment is almost certainly doomed to failure. But as he plays the game without the arena, his tribute is playing an even deadlier game within and he starts to feel for her as their fates become intertwined. Soon he finds himself weighing whether or not to follow the rules against his own guaranteed survival.
It’s sure to be an interesting look at a villain before his turn into a full villain, and even more interesting to see if fans will flock to it. Again, an apt comparison would be the Fantastic Beasts films, which have made a very solid amount of money at the box office, netting almost $1.5 billion between the two of them. However, the second film saw an $159 million drop from the first film and the reception for it was lukewarm thanks to the uneven story. Wisely, Warner Bros. decided to bring on longtime Harry Potter screenwriter David Kloves to help J.K. Rowling with the script for the third movie.
But as mentioned already, Lionsgate is being smart from the start with its own franchise prequel movies and tempering Collins’ deep knowledge of her universe but lack of screenwriting experience with the functional knowledge of a working screenwriter in Arndt. Hopefully, the pair can pen a script that is faithful to the book and the world of Panem while working as a solid narrative for a movie adaptation. If they can, Lionsgate just might have a winning formula to get their most famous franchise back up and running.
