With production underway on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Lionsgate is getting a headstart on an adaptation for their two-part finale of Suzanne Collins‘ popular story. According to Variety, the studio will not be bringing back Simon Beaufoy or Michael Arndt, who helped Collins script the currently shooting second film.
Instead, they’ve gone with Danny Strong, who is coming off two Emmys for the HBO political movie Game Change, and has Lee Daniels‘ drama The Butler arriving next year. This is a fine choice, but for a franchise like this — one that needs to gel with the others — its hard to say we’ll see a great deal of his influence on screen. Compared to other series in Hollywood, it somewhat remarkable, however, that we’ll have separate screenwriters for each movie, with Billy Ray kicking it off earlier this year.
No director has been announced yet, but expect all your favorite characters to return for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 on November 21st, 2014 and the final movie, which will land on November 20th, 2015.
What do you make of Strong scripting this two-part feature?