Film production studio and distributor Lionsgate Films, is actively exploring ideas for developing prequels to "The Hunger Games" franchise. Variety reports that in his speech at the recent UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns declared that the franchise "will live on and on". He compared The Hunger Games franchise to the Harry Potter franchise in terms of the wealth of possibilities to explore in storytelling.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Francis Lawrence also expressed his interest in going back to the franchise to do a prequel film. Lawrence said the most interesting part of the Hunger Games universe is going back in Panem history to explore what happened 75 years before, and discover what made Panem the way it is in Katniss' time.
Burns further reveals that should there be prequels, they would feature battles in the same arenas where Katniss Everdeen competed in the 74th and 75th Hunger Games. He adds that it is not their intention to glorify violence in film, but to explore potential back stories within the world of Panem. Burns noted that younger audiences missed out on arena scenes that were the highlight of the first two films in the franchise. The last two films, Mockingjay Part 1 and Mockingjay Part 2 were set outside the arena, and lacked the exciting arena action the first two films were known for. It is the arena action that Burns wants to get back to with the prequels. This idea may have been borne out of the U.S. box-office earnings result for Mockingjay Part 2, reported to be the weakest performance in the entire franchise.
Despite that particular setback, Burns is very optimistic about the future of the franchise, choosing to focus on the fact that Mockingjay Part 2 has currently earned $525 million at the worldwide box-office. According to The Wrap, Burns doesn't want the franchise to be bogged down by the details of a single element. He adds that in a successful franchise like The Hunger Games, they could earn nearly a billion dollars.
The Hunger Games film franchise is based on a trilogy of young adult dystopian novels by Suzanne Collins. In the books, selected adolescents and young teens are pitted against each other to fight to the death in a reality show contest called "The Hunger Games". The story is set in a post-apocalyptic America called "Panem". In 2009, Nina Jacobson acquired the movie rights to The Hunger Games. Shortly after, Lionsgate Films stepped in as its film distributor.
As of now, Lionsgate Films hasn't released an official announcement on making the prequels.
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