Francis Lawrence Set to Direct ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel

As Susan Collins’s Hunger Games Prequel, The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes, is set to the hit selves May 19, filmmaker Francis Lawrence has been hired once again to direct a film adaption of the book. 

Lawrence directed the final three films in the original Hunger Game franchise, Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1, and Mockingjay Part 2, which earned an astonishing $3 billion in box office revenue. Collins will write the film’s original treatment while Michael Arndt, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine, will adapt the screenplay. Arndt wrote the original screenplay for all other Hunger Games films. 

The prequel will be set during the 10th annual hunger games. During these games, readers meet Coriolanus Snow at age 18, many years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem we come to know in the original trilogy. Snow and his family have fallen upon hard times when he receives a chance to mentor a tribute during the games. Only when he realizes he must mentor a girl from district 12 is his excitement tarnished. 

A Hunger Games prequel has long been discussed about as a possibility. While there has been no word on casting, but now with a director chosen, the prequel will move forward.