Posted in: Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, film, francis lawrence, lionsgate, the hunger games, the hunger games: the ballad of songbirds and snakes

The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Director on Creating the Games

Director Francis Lawrence is revealing his favorite thing about bringing the actual "hunger games" to life in live action form.

One of the most popular aspects of The Hunger Games universe is the actual "games" that feel like a higher-stakes version of competition series like Big Brother and Survivor, except for the notion that death is a planned outcome in The Hunger Games, obviously. Regardless, the unavoidable bloodshed has become a franchise staple, so fans are just as eager to see how it pans out in the upcoming prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes. 

While recently speaking to ComicBook about the release of the upcoming Hunger Games prequel, director Francis Lawrence delved into crafting the Hunger Games event itself, explaining, "I think part of what was fun about this… I mean, maybe I did [learn lessons] just because I've done some of the Games before on the other ones. And so, when you come back to these Games, and even though the arena is very different and it's much more rudimentary, you want to make sure that you're approaching the Games in very different ways and that the beginning of the Games and the way the Games start and all of that has really specific emotional values that differ from the ones we've seen before."

The filmmaker then elaborates, "More of what [Suzanne Collins] and I would talk about is maintaining the rudimentary nature of the Games themselves, and we had talked a lot about the sort of level of technology. And then, really, I worked with Uli Hanisch to kind of create the look of this. And I think Suzanne always gives me the freedom to go where I want to go with that. And we really just looked at reconstruction-era Berlin, 1945, the end of the war. How do you sort of rebuild from all that damage after the dark days of war? And that's kind of what we looked at and why we ended up really shooting in Berlin for most of the movie."

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes Synopsis and Release Date

The film's official summary teases: "The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray's charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake."

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes arrives in theaters on November 17th.

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