The odds weren’t in director Francis Lawrence’s favor when he cut up Mockingjay, the ultimate Hunger Games installment, into two movies — however he admittedly thought of the identical method when he returned for the bold prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
At almost three hours, the movie centered on a teenage Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth, taking on the position from franchise star Donald Sutherland) has the longest runtime of any Hunger Games film. “There was, like, one second the place I believed, Do we do two films?” Lawrence says in EW’s particular Hunger Games collector’s version, on newsstands Nov. 3. “I made a decision, no, we’re not happening that street once more.”
In his protection, there is a number of floor to cowl.
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Based on Hunger Games creator Suzanne Collins’ prequel of the identical title, the dystopian romance drama traces the college days of a pre-tyrant Snow throughout the tenth Hunger Games, an annual televised occasion whereby youngsters struggle to the dying as punishment for a previous riot in opposition to the Capitol. He’s tasked with mentoring District 12 feminine tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a member of the Covey musical group.
Split into three chapters on the display screen, the primary chronicles the young Snow’s time on the Academy, the Capitol’s elite secondary college, alongside wayward classmate Sejanus Plinth (Josh Andrés Rivera), headmaster Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis), and dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage). The second dives into the lethal video games, whereas Coriolanus and Lucy Gray’s budding romance takes heart stage within the third and remaining act. “The size was daunting,” franchise producer Nina Jacobson says, although she notes that the film “actually goes by so quick.”
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Lawrence lately revealed that he regretted splitting Mockingjay into two, very similar to the method for the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises. “What I spotted on reflection — and after listening to all of the reactions and feeling the form of wrath of followers, critics, and folks on the cut up — is that I spotted it was irritating,” he instructed PEOPLE final month. “And I can perceive it.”
He continued, “In an episode of tv, when you’ve got a cliffhanger, it’s a must to wait every week or you possibly can simply binge it after which you possibly can see the subsequent episode. But making folks wait a yr, I feel, got here throughout as disingenuous, despite the fact that it wasn’t. Our intentions had been to not be disingenuous.” That’s to not say he is not pleased with the truth that they acquired to dive into extra of the supply materials.
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“We acquired extra on the display screen out of the guide than we’d’ve in any of the opposite films since you’re getting near 4 hours of display screen time for the ultimate guide,” Lawrence added. “But I see and perceive the way it pissed off folks.”
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes arrives in theaters Nov. 17. You should purchase Entertainment Weekly’s The Ultimate Guide to The Hunger Games right here, or on newsstands.
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