After a hugely positive reaction to the recently released trailer for The Hunger Games, Lionsgate are already planning the film’s follow-up, and are reportedly hoping to get Oscar-winning scriptwriter Simon Beaufoy to pen the next movie in the franchise.
Should he take the job, Beaufoy (best known for scripting Slumdog Millionaire, and 127 Hours) will be adapting Catching Fire; the second novel in the the three-book series of Susanne Collins’ novels; which follows the adventures of the young Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: First Class) in a interesting post-apocalyptic world, and will continue on from the first movie; in which she enters a fight-to-the-death competition for teenagers, in order to save her younger sister’s life.
While director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) had planned on scripting the second film with Susanne Collins, the post-production schedule for The Hunger Games has apparently made that an impossibility, as, while there’s currently no start date for the new movie, the studio are pushing it through as a high priority, and hope to begin filming as close to The Hunger Games’ release date of March 23rd (in both the US and UK) as possible.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Deadline.
