Well Lionsgate hasn't wasted any time in betting on the first Hunger Games as a smashing success, even if it is about eight months before its March 2012 release date. In fact, they're so confident, that they've already begun planning the sequel, Catching Fire, and have assigned it a November 22, 2013 release date. While I poke fun at Lionsgate's presumptuous nature, what they're doing actually makes huge amounts of success and is really par for the course. After all, while the release date doesn't actually guarantee the film gets made, it does encourage fans wary of seeing the film in the fear that it's a one time thing to pony up the cash for its theatrical release and thus help make that 2013 release something Lionsgate actually wants to pursue.
Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, which has over 3 million copies in print in the United States alone, is the first in a trilogy of novels which have developed a global following. The cast for the upcoming Hunger Games includes Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Toby Jones, Willow Shields, Donald Sutherland, Wes Bentley, Lenny Kravitz, and many more.
Here's a basic synopsis for those unaware:
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.
When you look back at the number of misfired Young Adult books converted to film in the last decade (based undoubtedly on the success of the Harry Potter craze), it's pretty clear that studios are willing to rush just about any popular franchise from the page to the screen in the hopes that they've got the next big hit. If history has taught us anything though, it's that success in bookstores does not always translate to success at the box office. Just look at the following franchises, all of them promising, and then remember their screen adaptations: The Golden Compass (from the "His Dark Materials" series), Ember, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Eragon, and Ella Enchanted. That's not the full, somewhat embarrassing list, but it's a good representation of just how wrong a Young Adult fiction series can go when translated to the screen. So while we're not betting against Hunger Games, history is as much on its side as it is against it, but recent trends show it's a very treacherous road.
