I understand the financial reasoning behind cutting the final films in these franchises into two. Of course, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows appears to have made much more sense than Twilight: Breaking Dawn and the same can be said for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, which Lionsgate officially announced today (via press release) will be released in two parts. However, I wish they would be a bit more inventive than just arbitrarily splitting one story into two parts.
Why not approach all three books and cut three into four as opposed to one into two? In the case of The Hunger Games, author Suzanne Collins has been involved from the start, including a contribution to the screenplay for the first film. Why not outline the entire story into four separate films? Maybe add a little here and there, add a new character, explore the space a little more.
As is, the Hunger Games franchise will play out with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire arriving on November 22, 2013, followed by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 on November 21, 2014 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 on November 20, 2015. And I’m sorry, but even that is a bit frustrating, making fans wait an entire year for Part 2 is just wrong. At least Warner Bros. only kept fans waiting only eight months, which isn’t perfect, but it’s something.
Personally, having read the trilogy of books, but not entirely remembering everything that goes on, I would have loved to see it remain only three films with Catching Fire and the first quarter of Mockingjay playing out as one film with the final 75-percent of Mockingjay a film all its own. In my opinion it’s a series that only gets better as you go with one hell of a spectacular ending so as it is, I’ll be really curious to see how they handle the bloody madness that is the end of Mockingjay.
In the meantime, The Hunger Games is hitting DVD and Blu-ray on August 18 and I just recently received the following “Special Features” trailer for the release, which you can preorder right here.
