In a move that shouldn't surprise anybody, Deadline is reporting that Lionsgate revealed to a bunch of Wall Street suits that their planned trilogy of films based on Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games will in fact be four movies. Why? More loot, of course. Here's the relevant portion from the story....
Lionsgate executives told Wall Street analysts this morning to expect big things from The Hunger Games, a series of four action films that the studio will release from the trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. COO Joe Drake said it was “the highest selling film we’ve ever had” at the Cannes Film Festival and that overseas exhibitors consider it “the movie that can change their company.” Although Lionsgate wouldn’t disclose its budget for the films, Drake says Hunger Games could become an “outsized success” for Lionsgate. The studio says it bought the rights before the books became runaway best-sellers, and it has “retained the majority of the upside” in its talent and distribution deals.
"The movie that can change their company". Those are big, bold words from the studio, and if foreign exhibitors think that's the case why wouldn't you milk this potential cash cow for all it's worth? Look what it's done for Warner Brothers with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Or even what it'll likely do for Summit Entertainment and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. It makes perfect sense from a business perspective.
So which of the three books will get split? It likely won't be The Hunger Games
, as it's a pretty straight forward affair. The second book, Catching Fire
, has a pretty stark division in the less actiony bits before jumping into another bloody round of Games. More than likely it'll be the final novel, Mockingjay
, which has a plot I won't spoil here...mainly because I haven't finished reading it yet.What do you think of this idea? Are you getting tired of having single movies divided just so you can pay twice for them? The Hunger Games is due to hit theaters on March 23rd 2012.
