‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Book And Movie In Works

My only experience with the Hunger Games is the movies. The books never really interested me and the movies felt like they limped over the finish line after the first two strong films. I attribute part of this to Jennifer Lawrence. I think she’s a great actress, but she’s not a great liar when it comes to things she’s passionate about. She was smart to jump on to two major franchises early in her career (X-Men and Hunger Games), but you could watch the life in her eyes drain as each new film in the franchise dragged on. She seems built for stand-alone stories. Now that she’s got the retirement investment of the two big franchises, you can see that she’s mostly aiming at smaller stories that wrap up after a single movie.

Lucky for Lionsgate, you don’t need Lawrence to make more Hunger Games, especially when that new Hunger Games project is a prequel. Author Suzanne Collins has just announced, through Scholastic, that she’s returning for a prequel story that will take place 64 years before the events of the current books and films. The book is set to be released on May 19, 2020. For their part, Lionsgate is already on board for the film, even if the book sucks. Joe Drake, Chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture group had this to say:

“As the proud home of the Hunger Games movies, we can hardly wait for Suzanne’s next book to be published. We’ve been communicating with her during the writing process and we look forward to continuing to work closely with her on the movie.”