As reported on Wired.
- BY ANGELA WATERCUTTER
Image: Murray Close/Lionsgate
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opened over the weekend with a new director, Francis Lawrence, at the helm of the popular movie franchise. He’s now slated to make two more sequels based on the final book,Mockingjay, a novel that differs drastically in tone from its predecessors and focuses on propaganda wars, a proletariat guerrilla movement, and PTSD – essentially not the easiest stuff to make blockbusters out of.
“It’s a weird thing,” Lawrence told WIRED just before he flew out to Europe to continue location scouting for the final two films. “Somehow I didn’t feel nearly as much pressure starting Catching Fire as I do doing these Mockingjays… For me, [this] is the chapter that gives the entire series its meaning.”
WIRED interviewed Lawrence, who has already spent five weeks filming Mockingjay, about what to expect from his final chapters, from ditching IMAX to the introduction of Julianne Moore as President Alma Coin, the leader of the underground rebellion outpost District 13.
(Spoiler alert: Mild spoilers for Catching Fire and Mockingjay follow.)
There Will Be a Lot More Psychological Trauma
Couldn’t get enough of Katniss’ PTSD in Catching Fire? Thought those jabberjays that mimicked the screams of people’s loved ones weren’t damaging enough? You’re in luck. Mockingjay goes even deeper and darker into the level of mental trauma the Capitol tries to impose. Lawrence is keeping that in there – a lot of it. “To me Catching Fire is the beginning of it, where you start to see that damage and it only gets worse,” Lawrence said. “Obviously if you know Mockingjay, you know stuff is done to Peeta and so there’s a lot more exploration of that.”
The Book’s Epilogue Is Probably Staying In
Without completely spoiling the end of the story, let’s just say that the epilogue for Mockingjay takes us pretty far into the future. Last week when Catching Fire premiered, Lawrence told MTV that he might endMockingjay – Part 2 with “a very small, minimal scene of Katniss hunting,” but he didn’t say when in the timeline that would take place. Chances are, it’ll probably be in the future, though Lawrence declined to elaborate on exactly when. “The ending of the book and the book itself is just really important to me,” he said. “I will just say that we’re making the book. But because we are splitting it into two there’s room for world growth. I don’t want to give anything away or anything, but we’re being very true to the book.” (Book fans may also take this as a sign that some other controversial character arcs may end similarly to those in Collins’ book as well. Tissues please.)
Don’t Anticipate IMAX — It’s Going All Digital
One of the cooler visual tricks in Catching Fire — for those who see it in IMAX – happens when Katniss first enters the arena. As she ascends into the 75th annual Hunger Games in her tube, the actual screen extends vertically into its full IMAX glory. Expect none of that in Mockingjay. “In fact, we’re actually shootingMockingjay digitally,” Lawrence said. “We went from film to digital – mostly because it’s a very different kind of story and most of it takes place underground and in District 13.”
Julianne Moore Will Be Your New Overlord
Julianne Moore, who will play President Alma Coin, has already begun work on Mockingjay. “Julianne’s already been shooting,” Lawrence said. “She’s been great.” Moore, who is re-teaming with Josh Hutcherson (Peeta in the Hunger Games films and her son in The Kids Are Alright), plays the tough leader of the anti-Capitol rebellion who occasionally butts heads with Katniss.
Expect a Lot More Political Thrills
In the first two installments of the series Katniss Everdeen has to learn how to play the games, and in the final one she learns how to play politics. As the Mockingjay she essentially becomes the face of a revolution – a floating Che Guevara head for a new generation. It’s a role she takes on reluctantly but learns to work to her advantage, especially as she learns that she really can’t stand kowtowing to “authority” in any form.
Hence there’s a lot of political talk – talk that’s being written by Danny Strong, who won an Emmy for Game Change, the HBO film about the John McCain and Sarah Palin campaign. (He also stars as the vaguely creepy copywriter Danny Siegel on Mad Men.) Much like Game Change, Mockingjay is a book that already has a lot of politics to play with, even if they’re fictional. “Suzanne wrote, she wanted to write a series of books for teenagers about the consequence of war and what that means,” Lawrence said. “When there’s violence it damages people, there’s loss, there’s real consequence. To really get that and to give the series its meaning I think you need to get to Mockingjay and tell that story.”