Lionsgate announced Tuesday that the Santa Monica studio will adapt the upcoming Suzanne Collins novel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” the fourth in her “Hunger Games” series, for the big screen.
The previous three books — “The Hunger Games,” “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay” — have more than 100 million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into 52 languages. Lionsgate adapted those books into four feature films that took in nearly $3 billion worldwide.
The author’s latest novel will be published by Scholastic simultaneously in print, digital and audio formats in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand on May 19.
“Lionsgate has always been the cinematic home of `The Hunger Games,’ and I’m delighted to be returning to them with this new book,” Collins said in a statement released by the studio. “From the beginning, they have treated the source material with great respect, honoring the thematic and narrative elements of the story, and assembling an incredible team both in front of and behind the camera.”
Joe Drake, chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said the new book “offers everything fans could hope for and expect from `The Hunger Games’ while also breaking new ground and introducing an entirely new canvas of characters.”
Collins will write the film’s treatment and serve as an executive producer of the new film, which will be directed by Francis Lawrence, who also helmed “Catching Fire,” “Mockingjay Part 1” and “Mockingjay Part 2.”
Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt (“Little Miss Sunshine,” “Toy Story 3”) will adapt the screenplay, after previously serving as one of the writers of “Catching Fire,” and
Nina Jacobson, who has produced all of the films in the franchise, is also back on board.
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