The test for filmmakers will be to walk the same line. “The book’s ethics are clear, and we will find a director who can handle the material in the right way,” Jacobson said. “Suzanne was rightly concerned that it had the potential to be turned into something she hated, glorifying the violence the book is meant to critique.”

“That was really our pitch to Suzanne—You don’t want the movie to become its own version of The Hunger Games,” she continued.

Collins wrote a draft of the screenplay, and Billy Ray, who wrote State of Play and is set to adapt the Fox action drama 24 into a feature, completed a polish. Producers are now searching for a director.

Lionsgate president of production Alli Shearmur collected all of the studio’s top brass to get on the phone when it came time to convince Jacobson they were in sync. “That never happens at a big studio,” Jacobson said. “We were all just really emotionally invested fans.”

The Hunger Games has found older fans apart from the excited filmmakers, which is good news for a potential film franchise; Scholastic’s Leviathan estimates, based on word of mouth and members of the official Hunger Games Facebook page, half of all readers are adults. The book’s mainstream appeal, he explained, can be attributed to any number of its themes. “It taps into the culture of fear we live in, definitely… But it’s also accessible in other ways. There’s action, a love triangle, a headstrong female lead, science-fiction… ”

All involved agree that the film should play to older crowds but “should absolutely be rated PG-13,” Jacobson said. “It would be wrong to make the R-rated version of it.”

“The situations are so intense and frightening; it’s just going to be a matter of creating suspense,” she said. “The power of movies can be just as much about what you don’t see as what you do.”

Find the rest at the at The Daily Beast.

Share this on

No related posts.