Lionsgate has announced that it will be adapting Suzanne Collins Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes into a feature film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Francis Lawrence, who directed Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1, and Mockingjay Part 2, will return to helm the Hunger Games prequel film.
Screenwriter Michael Arndt and producer Nina Jacobson, who teamed with Lionsgate on the four movie adaptations of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay, will likewise return to for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes film.
The Hunger Games prequel film will follow the same story as the book, set roughly 64 years before we meet Katniss Everdeen in the first book of the series and focusing on Coriolanus Snow at age 18, years before he would go on to become the tyrannical President of Panem that served as the main antagonist for all three of the Hunger Games books.
Young Coriolanus is handsome and charming, and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, he sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the Tenth Hunger Games, only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor the girl tribute from impoverished District 12.
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is creatively thrilling and takes this world to complex new dimensions that open up amazing cinematic possibilities,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Joe Drake. “We’re thrilled to reunite this filmmaking team with this very unique franchise, and we can’t wait to begin production.”
Though the team behind the cameras has been set, there has been no casting news or release date announced.
Writer Suzanne Collins will write the film’s treatment and will likewise serve as an executive producer on the film.
“Lionsgate has always been the cinematic home of The Hunger Games, and I’m delighted to be returning to them with this new book,” said Collins in her own statement.
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