Following the tradition of ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Twilight Saga,’ Lionsgate has announced that the final book in the Suzanne Collins ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy will be split into two movies.
This really shouldn’t come as a surprise as this plan has been mulling around with studio execs since June. Not only has the decision been made to break ‘Mockingjay’ into two parts, but the studio has already set the titles and release dates for the films. ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1’ and ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2’ will be released November 21, 2014 and November 20, 2015 respectively. With ‘Catching Fire’ being released on November 22, 2013, that means audiences will soon have a new Thanksgiving holiday tradition of watching children fight to the death after stuffing themselves from a banquet worthy of a Capitol’s table in Panem.
This is good news for newly added cast members Philip Seymore Hoffman and Jena Malone (and possibly Kevin Nash?) as their roles were significant in the third novel thus giving them an extra movie to co-star in.
With ‘Mockingjay’ cut in two, the question now begs as to where would the film makers decide to end ‘Part I’ in order to lead into the forth film. It will also be interesting to see who will be scribing the screenplay and if Francis Lawrence will stay on to direct the last two films. Hopefully more information will be released once ‘Catching Fire’ starts production in the Fall.
So where would you split ‘Mockingjay?’
Source: Deadline
