If you’re not hip to young-adult novel news then you may have forgotten that a new Hunger Games novel is set to debut in bookstores in just a month. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, written by Suzanne Collins, will go on sale May 19 and people are very, very ready for it. It is a prequel novel, since the original story featuring Katiness Everdeen has concluded. But people are still excited to jump back into the dystopian world Collins created. Prequels never let us down!
Lionsgate is also excited. They greenlit a film adaptation of the the book right when it was announced, before anyone knew its title or plot. And now Lionsgate has hired a director to make the new Hunger Games film — and it’s a familiar choice.
Francis Lawrence will return to direct Ballad. Lawrence is well known to Hunger Games fans, seeing as he directed the last three films in the series: Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 and Mockingjay Part 2. He is a very predictable, safe and, honestly, understandable choice. Lionsgate wants someone reliable for this project because it has a chance to be a major money-maker for them. However, like I said, the movie will be a prequel and that is turn-off for some fans. So Lionsgate wants to make sure that The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes looks and feels like the Hunger Games films that came before it. And if they can’t bring back Jennifer Lawrence why not bring back the other Lawrence who made the first series such a huge hit?
So what is Ballad about? Well, apparently it will be about a young Coriolanus Snow, who would later grow up to be the evil dictator who goes to battle with Katniss (he was played by Donald Sutherland in the movies). In the new book, Snow is assigned to mentor a girl tribute from District 12 in the Tenth Hunger Games. Who knows where things go from there? Honestly, the plot sounds a little bland to me. A prequel series about why and how The Hunger Games were created? Count me in. A prequel series about the guy who would eventually become the major villain? Eh, been there and done that.
But Collins obviously thinks she has something good up her sleeve. And so does Lionsgate. And now with Lawrence on board to direct, they will surely get a good-looking movie to boot.