Francis Lawrence, Lionsgate’s Gamesmaker-in-Chief for their movie adaptation of Sunrise on the Reaping, is thrilled to death about the second prequel. Why? Listen in to his over the top excitement about the project:
In a nutshell, he’s totally excited about the second prequel because it is so unlike the first prequel, Songbirds and Snakes.
The problems with that book were (1) that it featured a character, Coriolanus Snow, who was despicable and audiences quite rightly struggled to “get behind” and (2) the technology of the Hunger Games death match was relatively primitive. There wasn’t a lot of pod-induced mayhem or Muttation-generated terror in the Arena killing field.
Which is to say that Lawrence is delighted that the new book brings us back to Catching Fire level technology and Gamesmaker horrors for the Tributes who are fighting for their lives as entertainment for the Capitol audience.
This is beyond satire, no? Collins is writing novels that depict the evils of the Gamesmakers and the psychopathic illness of those who enjoy watching their death festivals — and the movie makers who adapt those novels into films have exactly the same priorities as the villains (and the movie-goers the mindless citizens?) in the novels.
This isn’t new to the series; it’s been a constant since the first Lionsgate production. See Gamesmakers Hijack Story: Capitol Wins Hunger Games Again from 2012 for proof of that. What’s groundbreaking here, I think, is the ‘saying the silent thing out loud’ quality of Lawrence’s enthusiastic comments.
It’s Holy Week here at HogwartsProfessor, which means that we’re taking some time off for travel, worship, and reflection about the future of HogwartsProfessor.com. Saturday’s post, a Haymitch clip from the original movie that has new resonance in light of Sunrise (see below for the best part of that), was the 250th of daily pieces since last August. We’re due a break and the weblog deserves a re-imagining.
More on that next week. In anticipation of the Feast, Kalo Pascha!
