Two for one deal.
Rumored, now confirmed: the third book in Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy, “Mockingjay,” will be split into two films. Lionsgate, the studio behind the adaptations announced that “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1“ will be released on November 21, 2014 with “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2″ arriving on November 20, 2015.
It’s part of a trend that began with Harry Potter and continued with the Twilight franchise, take a set of books, turn them into successful movies and then try to stretch them out as far as possible. The difference here, though, is that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and “Twilight: Breaking Dawn” were both 700 plus page books so aside from sheer greed, there were practical story-oriented reasons for splitting them into two. “Mockingjay,” on the other hand is a slim 400 pages. They’re going to really have to stretch that to make two full movies.
Meanwhile, they’re getting ready to film the second book in the series, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” which will be released on November 22, 2013. The cast includes Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Lenny Kravitz, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Toby Jones, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
