We all waited patiently (kind of) for the release of Mockingjay – dying to know how the Hunger Games trilogy was going to end. We love this series and now we’re all waiting for the Hunger Games movie to be made. It seems the process is about to take another major step forward. In an exclusive for Deadline, they’ve been told that Lionsgate will be meeting with three elite directors next week before making a decision. They say Gary Ross, Sam Mendes and David Slade are the front runners.
As Deadline points out, Hunger Games has been talked about as the next Twilight, in so far as the film could reach multiple audience quadrants. But as they also point out, the big bosses at Lionsgate are watching their dollars closely and they wonder if Lionsgate will want to “step up and make a pricey deal with a big name director and commit a budget between $60 million to $80 million for a film that stars a bunch of teenaged unknowns?”
For anyone who has ever read Hunger Games, they already know that if done right, the story should make a gripping, roller coaster ride of a movie. So long as they walk that fine line between depicting the darker aspects without glorifying the fighting and inherent violence, then it should be intensely compelling. Today’s news makes the whole thing a little more real.
So let us know what you think of the directors that Deadline has named or even how you feel about a Hunger Games movie? Here’s who they are:
David Sladeis a British director who began his career making music videos. His first movie was Hard Candy. He then directed the vampire movie 30 Days of Night before Eclipse, the third film in the Twilight series. It’s believed he’s in negotiations to direct a sequel for the X-Men origins series.
Sam Mendes is an English stage and film director. His first film was American Beauty. He also directed Road to Perdition, Jarhead and Revolutionary Road.
Gary Ross is an American writer, actor and director. He is best known for his films, Pleasantville and Seabiscuit.
Our favorite author, Suzanne Collins has fronted the camera again, to post a new video on the Scholasticwebsite, answering some questions about The Hunger Games series. It comes as news that the final book in the series, Mockingjay has debuted on all US bestseller lists and is already going into a second printing. Mockingjay is now at number 1 on both the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists. In just its first week on sale in the US, it’s sold more than 450,000 copies in hardcover and eBook.
President of Scholastic Trade Publishing division, Ellie Berger says that after months of anticipation, sales of Mockingjay have exceeded all expectations.
The Hunger Games has been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 100 consecutive weeks since its release in September 2008. Its sequel, Catching Fire, has been on the bestseller list for over 50 weeks in a row since its September 2009 publication.
It’s on again! To celebrate the final installment of The Hunger Games series, Mockingjay, we’re giving away another one of our awesome prize packs. We were lucky to receive a bunch of Hunger Games stuff from NECA and WizKids and we want to share it with you.
Our latest Hunger Games Prize Pack includes:
A Mockingjay brooch
Three unique pair of earrings: District 12, parachute, and mockingjay
A Hunger Games charm bracelet
A set of Hunger Games stickers
A slap bracelet
A set of four Hunger Games buttons.
This prize is valued at over $80 and is open to everyone – no matter where you live.
To enter you need to go to ourFORUMand post on our GIVEAWAY thread. You’ll get an extra entry if you also mention it on ourfacebookpage and/or twitter using the hashtag#myhungergames.When you get to the forum, check under Mockingjay in the Books.
Entries close at midnight on Friday September 10, 2010 (EDT)
UPDATE: If you’re looking for Hunger Games merchandise, it’s now available through selected stores, but also online through our STORE links.
While Finnick Odair is not likely to feature in the Hunger Games movie (we only meet him in Catching Fire) if all three books are adapted for film, then someone will have to play him. I was wondering who you think that should be? There’s been a couple of suggestions on our forum, but I’d love to know what you think.
Here’s what we know about Finnick:
Finnick Odair is the male tribute from District 4 who won the 65th Hunger Games at the age of 14. During those Games he was sent a trident, which might have been one of the most expensive gifts ever given in the Games. He excelled at using the trident as a weapon and with his skill for making nets, he would trap his opponents and then kill them.
He was also a mentor for the District 4 tributes during the 74th Hunger Games and took part in the 3rd Quarter Quell during which he was part of an alliance with Peeta, Katniss, Wiress, Beetee, Johanna Mason and his previous mentor, Mags.
He’s described as being tall, muscular and athletic, with golden skin, bronze-colored hair, and seafoam green eyes. Katniss puts his success down to a combination of his physical skill and unprecedented popularity among the Capitol.
His one and only true love is Annie Cresta, the 70th Hunger Games victor who went insane when her partner tribute got beheaded in the Games.
I have to admit that I read The Hunger Games knowing that it was being considered as a movie. I remember turning the pages and wondering how you could portray what is essentially a horrifying and harrowing concept of children killing children and adapt it for the screen. It seems that Nina Jacobsen, the producer of the Hunger Games movie, felt exactly the same way. She spoke to Denise Martin of Daily Beastabout the trilogy and how they hope to deal with all the violence.
Ms Jacobsen is a former Disney studio chief who now heads her own production company. She says she discovered the series about 18 months ago and become obsessed. She said she also quickly moved to secure the rights and by March last year had teamed up with Lionsgate with the blessing of Suzanne Collins.
“What Suzanne managed in the book is to explore violence and exploitation without it feeling exploitative or guilty of its own themes,” Ms Jacobson told Daily Beast. “It’s critical… it pulls off being commentary and a really gripping page-turner at the same time.”
So how are they going to handle it? Both Ms Jacobson and Lionsgate say the movie will be made for the core audience of 12 to 18 year olds and will need a PG-13 rating. They also acknowledge that the test for filmmakers will be to walk the same line Suzanne Collins did in telling a story that doesn’t shy away from depicting the inevitable deaths while keeping the ethics clear. Ms Jacobsen says they need to find a director who can handle the material in the right way, that the last thing they want to do is make something that glorifies the violence the series itself is meant to critique.
Ms Collins has written a draft of the screenplay which she handed over to veteran screenwriter Billy Ray to polish. The search is now on for a director with filming hoped to start in February.
Ms Jacobsen sums up by saying that while the situations are intense and frightening in the Hunger Games, it will be a matter of creating suspense. As she told Daily Beast, the power of movies can be just as much about what you don’t see as what you do.
MILD SPOILER ALERT:This review contains spoilers – so please come back once you’re read Mockingjay.
It felt like we had to wait forever, but finally Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games series has been released and as a conclusion to the trilogy, it doesn’t disappoint.
In the first book, The Hunger Games, we discover a world ruled by a dictatorship that demands that every year children from different districts will fight to the death in a giant televised event. It is in that book that Katniss, at the age of 16, is thrown into the Games only to emerge after having broken all the rules and taken back a small amount of control. In Mockingjay, Katniss is still breaking the rules. Here she’s the face of a rebellion against the all powerful Capitol. The situation has now descended into all out war. There are no longer any more Games being held in the arena, as they’re now spread out throughout the districts.
This story is at once heartbreaking and horrifying. It’s brutal and Suzanne Collins never spares the blood or the gore. That’s not to say she does it pointlessly. Every wound or death has a purpose and an aftermath. Everything is connected and written for a reason. The readers are drawn along emotionally. We feel every blow along with Katniss, and mourn all of the loved ones that she loses along the way. Katniss falls apart, and in a way, so do we.
This is a war story. We find out what it means to be a volunteer and yet still be a pawn. Suzanne Collins develops the supporting characters beautifully, so much so that we learn to care about them and some of their deaths can be a bit hard to take. That might upset some people, but for me it was one of the strong points of the book. The war is depicted as real and horrible. There’s no clear good and bad guys either. Mockingjay continues to be just as complex and intriguing with its areas of grey as the first two books. You can never take anything for granted.
And all of that is bigger than the love story – the speculation about who Katniss will choose, Peeta or Gale. While Katniss continues to love them both, romance has never been a prority for her and that stays true in Mockingjay. It’s always been about survival for Katniss and making sure her loved ones, including Gale and Peeta, survive too. Nevertheless, the war does eventually come to an end and she does make a choice. Because she’s been to hell and back and lost so much along the way, the decision, the ending, seems somewhat real. You know that Katniss will never be the same again.
While I loved this book, I do have some criticisms of it. I was expecting Katniss to develop more in Mockingjay. I really thought her internal struggle would be a reflection of what was happening in Panem. I thought that as the districts took back their power, so too would Katniss emerge as the master of her own destiny. Unfortunately it never really happens. She never reaches her full potential and ends her days in passive reflection. Was she manipulated by Snow, or did she, in the final moment, act on her own, setting everyone free to start over, with no Capitol and no District 13? It felt to me that Katniss’ inner journey was never fully resolved. I would have liked her to have had a moment to reflect, to know that she had achieved it, that she had finally become the Mockingjay for real and that once she’d finished her task – had done all she could do – she was ready to leave. But there is no neat ending for Mockingjay. It doesn’t’ get wrapped up nicely with a bow. The ending was a little unsettling, which is definitely part of its strength and its beauty, but a part of me was left wishing for a just a little bit more.
We love Hunger Games fan art and thought now that Mockingjay is out it was time to feature some new works.
This first one by CloverHoof sums up what drives Katniss through the events of Mockingjay – It’s simple but powerful.
I love this Mockingjay wallpaper by dalmatian1122. It features Michelle Trachtenberg as Katniss, Will Mosely as Peeta and Aaron Johnson as Gale.
For months the debate has been raging…who will Katniss pick… or more accurately who SHOULD Katniss pick. There’s those that think her long-time friend and hunting partner, Gale, is perfect for her, while others (and I’d say most actually) say that Peeta’s unconditional, all consuming love and devotion, make him perfect.
Those that have read Mockingjay now know the answer (ssshhhhh). But I love this piece of fan art by EmpressFunk that gives us a different perspective.
So, have you read Mockingjay? What did you think? The reviews are in and mostly they’re good. I thought I’d pull together a sample of what some of the big names are saying about the final installment in The Hunger Games trilogy.
“The realism is supplied by Collins’ teen characters — everyday kids thrown into a nightmare not of their making. The grown-ups tend to be plot devices, but they move the action along. ‘Mockingjay’ won’t make much sense if you haven’t read ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Catching Fire,’ but Collins’ fans, grown-ups included, will race to the end.”
“Fans will be happy to hear that ‘Mockingjay’ is every bit as complex and imaginative as ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘Catching Fire.’ Collins has kicked the brutal violence up a notch in an edge-of-your-seat plot.”
“This concluding volume in Collins’s ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy accomplishes a rare feat, the last installment being the best yet, a beautifully orchestrated and intelligent novel that succeeds on every level. In short, there’s something here for nearly every reader, all of it completely engrossing.”
“‘Mockingjay’ is the most violent and bloody and, based on the actions and statements of its characters, its most overtly antiwar — though not so much that it distracts from a series conclusion that is nearly as shocking, and certainly every bit as original and thought provoking, as ‘The Hunger Games.’ Unfolding in Collins’ engaging, intelligent prose and assembled into chapters that end with didn’t-see-that-coming cliffhangers, this finale is every bit the pressure cooker of its forebears. Wow. Fans aren’t likely to be disappointed.”
The fans of the Hunger Games series never cease to amaze me. The Mockingjay has only been out three days and already it’s touched people in inexplicable ways. In Part I, Katniss sings again – this time a song her father taught her when she was just seven years old. The HangingTree is sad and confusing, but it’s perfect for what she’s experiencing as she faces a new life in the midst of rebellion.
For many fans today is the day that you can finally get your hands on the final instalment of the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay. Overnight it was officially launched at a midinight release party at the Books of Wonder store in New York City. It was there that Suzanne Collins unvieled the most anticipated young adult novel of the summer.
More than 300 fans turned out for the event to be entertained by jugglers, a tarot card reader, face painter and trivia games. Some creative and devoted fans turned up in costume, including one that wore a bridal gown with flame colored feathers as flames.
Here’s how HILLEL ITALIE from Associated Press reports it:
NEW YORK — Author Suzanne Collins, her gentle smile and soft features framed by waves of blond hair, looked out upon hundreds of fans crowded into the Books of Wonder store in Manhattan and unveiled the most anticipated young adult novel of the summer, “Mockingjay.”
“I didn’t know there were so many of you until I came out,” she said, seated behind a rectangular table at the back of the store, confiding that she usually didn’t stay up until midnight, the Potter-esque launch time for the final work of her “Hunger Games” dystopian trilogy. “Now, let’s get on with it.”
Affecting a light Appalachian accent, the voice of fictional narrator and teen fighter Katniss Everdeen, the 48-year-old Collins read a couple of pages from the second book of the series, “Catching Fire.” Then she switched to the opening section of “Mockingjay,” a No. 1 best-seller on Amazon.com even before Tuesday’s publication and an object of such secrecy that when the occasional fan announced online that an early copy had been obtained, peers demanded no plot points be revealed.
“Mockingjay” readers nationwide attended midnight parties for the book, which has a first printing of 1.2 million copies.
At Books of Wonder, fans stood for hours outside under mist and drizzle, each greeted personally by store owner Peter Glassman, a longtime supporter of Collins whose loyalty was rewarded with her appearance early Tuesday, a special outing for an author who cares little for publicity. “When others’ interest waned, Peter was there,” Collins said as she hugged Glassman in a small office at the store where she waited before coming out to read.
Collins’ first reading ever was at Books of Wonder, around eight years ago, when she appeared on a panel of fantasy writers that included such future stars as Christopher Paolini of “Eragon” fame and Jonathan Stroud, author of the “Bartimaeus” trilogy. “That was a great group,” says Glassman, a heavyset man with a big and ready laugh. “I think there were about 100 people, which seemed like a lot at the time. It was a great night.”
Collins, who lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children, all of whom were at the reading, also is the author of the five-volume “Underland Chronicles” and the picture book “When Charlie McButton Lost Power.” She has written for several children’s television shows.
The million-selling “Hunger Games” novels are as dark as can be, stories of a murderous society where one has to kill or be killed. But the Books of Wonder event, well under way by early Monday evening, was more like a carnival, with jugglers, a trivia wheel, raffles, a face painter and a fortune teller. The books’ golden logo — a winged mockingjay, encircled by a ring and clutching an arrow with its beak — was seen on the cupcakes served by the adjacent cafe, on pins worn by fans and officials from publisher Scholastic Inc.; on a pendant that hung from the neck of Collins herself and in the image she stamped on books instead of signing them because of an injured hand.
The fans were mostly girls and women who ranged from grade schoolers and teenagers to adults self-conscious enough to ask that their names and ages not be revealed, to prize-winning children’s author and Collins admirer Rebecca Stead.
They included 15-year-old India Coombs, an actress who traveled all the way from Allentown, Pa., just to tell Collins she considered herself ideal to play Katniss in the film version of the first book, “The Hunger Games,” currently in development.
Kelsey Dixon, a high school senior on vacation from Birch Run, Mich., convinced her mother it was worth losing a night’s sleep to see Collins and get an early crack at the book. “She begged and she begged and I caved in,” her mother, Dawn Delacruz, said with a shrug.
A girl who lives near the store and comes often, 8th-grader Ina Brennan, said she loves the “rebellion” of the books and fell even deeper after winning a key chain in the store raffle. Her plan was to begin reading “Mockingjay” all night if she “doesn’t pass out first.”
Some fans arrived in costume, wearing the feathered bridal gown worn by Katniss during a key scene in “Catching Fire.” Some brought bows and arrows, weapons used in the books.
Others acted out the “Hunger Games” version of the Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle of the “Twilight” books. Would Katniss end up with loyal Gale or sweet Peeta? Fans advertised their loyalty by painting “Gale” or “Peeta” on their cheeks. Collins heightened the suspense by reading from the new book: “Peeta was taken prisoner. He is thought to be dead. Most likely he is dead.”
