Hunger Games Movie Update

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 Beast about 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.