‘Hunger Games’ to get prequel film

Lionsgate on Tuesday announced that it would adapt Suzanne Collins’s highly anticipated novel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” an upcoming prequel, as part of the popular “Hunger Games” film franchise.

The studio will bring on the same creative team that translated some of the novels to the big screen. Francis Lawrence will direct; Michael Arndt, Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Little Miss Sunshine,” will write the screenplay; Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson will produce; and Collins will executive produce and write the film’s treatment.

The picture’s casting has not been announced.

“Suzanne’s new book has been worth the wait. It 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,” Joe Drake, chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said Tuesday.

According to a synopsis, “The film will focus on Coriolanus Snow at age 18, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem.”

Collins said she was “delighted” Liongate would adapt her new novel. “They have treated the source material with great respect, honouring the thematic and narrative elements of the story, and assembling an incredible team both in front of and behind the camera.”