The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes | November 17, 2023 | Prequel about President Snow | Francis Lawrence to direct | Given a SAG interim agreement

[snarkmachine]

not willing to call flop on this until the book comes out. catching fire was the best book by far and produced the best movie. if the book is a critical/commercial success, a movie should do fine. if the book gets a tepid response from fans, so will the movie

[Spidey Freak]

On 4/22/2020 at 9:32 AM, snarkmachine said:

not willing to call flop on this until the book comes out. catching fire was the best book by far and produced the best movie. if the book is a critical/commercial success, a movie should do fine. if the book gets a tepid response from fans, so will the movie

It's got the Catching Fire screenwriter attached so I'm intrigued. District 11 scene still hits.

 

 

[snarkmachine]

just finished reading the book. nowhere near as good as the hunger games or catching fire, but i did feel a lot of the scenes that didn't work in the book would translate better on screen eg. lots of singing scenes. idk if this is going to work as a movie, it seems more suited to a tv show to me. also casting is going to be key because the two main characters in this were very flat on the page

[Morieris]

Spoiler

So far I feel that Collins remembered that District 12 was (roughly) in West Virginia and made Lucy into some trope-y amalgamation of a Southern Belle of a Wandering Performance Troupe. But I'm not even halfway though.

 

[Valonqar]

9 hours ago, snarkmachine said:

just finished reading the book. nowhere near as good as the hunger games or catching fire, but i did feel a lot of the scenes that didn't work in the book would translate better on screen eg. lots of singing scenes. idk if this is going to work as a movie, it seems more suited to a tv show to me. also casting is going to be key because the two main characters in this were very flat on the page

Thanks for saving me money and time. I was never interested in this but if people raved and called it a must-read I certainly would. But as expected, it sounds unnecessary and flat. is Snow one of main characters? That's quite an acomplishment to make him flat. 

[snarkmachine]

9 hours ago, Valonqar said:

Thanks for saving me money and time. I was never interested in this but if people raved and called it a must-read I certainly would. But as expected, it sounds unnecessary and flat. is Snow one of main characters? That's quite an acomplishment to make him flat. 

yes, snow is one of the main characters but the girl will be much trickier to pull off. imagine manic pixie dream girl times ten and then imagine a very annoying love story between them. i don't think suzanne collins is very good at writing love stories, and this one was much worse than katniss and peeta. casting is going to be key in the movie, and i don't know what it says about the book that i, a perpetual fan-caster of every book i read, have come up with absolutely nothing for both the main characters in the book

[Valonqar]

10 hours ago, snarkmachine said:

yes, snow is one of the main characters but the girl will be much trickier to pull off. imagine manic pixie dream girl times ten and then imagine a very annoying love story between them. i don't think suzanne collins is very good at writing love stories, and this one was much worse than katniss and peeta. casting is going to be key in the movie, and i don't know what it says about the book that i, a perpetual fan-caster of every book i read, have come up with absolutely nothing for both the main characters in the book

That sounds terrible. I still deem this movie unnecessary and I don't see it doing well but when did that stop studios? 

[Wormow]

This is going to be one of those movies that is very divisive. It's probably going to have the lowest RT score out of all five movies; regardless of whether they get the script right or not solely because of the content alone.

 

Also - 

Spoiler

the love story isn't supposed to be... pleasant? So the love story being annoying is warranted and I guess expected?

 

The games are tragic though, it's very anticlimactic. That's not going to bode well with movie viewers lol

 

Anyway... this is a story about one's human nature in the guise of a Hunger Games novel - it didn't feel like a Hunger Games novel for me. I personally liked it, but those coming in expecting an action packed Hunger Games movie will be disappointed.

 

And I agree with the comment that this should have been a TV miniseries. The story's pacing doesn't really lend itself to a movie... *spoiler warning* the games make up the second act and there's an entire third act that is it's completely own thing. 

 

I am kind of worried for the movie - I feel like the Hunger Games didn't really leave much a legacy for some reason even though all four movies were well received and huge. Though they've already started writing the movie and the movie is probably years away from release, so I hope they take the time to really refine that script and make it something special because it does have potential. 

 

[antovolk]

Disagree with the above - it's definitely a Hunger Games novel that uses the games as a springboard to go deeper into the inner workings of it all - which is what I always hoped for from any prequels etc.

 

Torn between whether this is better served by being a miniseries or a film...but in any case, needs a new title. HUNGER GAMES X?

[Morieris]

Spoiler

Does Tigris Snow NOT turn into Tigris the Hunger Games stylist turned cat-woman we meet in Mockingjay? The TV Tropes pages for the Capitol Characters suggests that she isn't. I'll be a little annoyed if that's so, Snow turning on his cousin to restore the family name would be brilliant.

But I still haven't finished the book.

 

[antovolk]

1 hour ago, Morieris said:

  Hide contents

Does Tigris Snow NOT turn into Tigris the Hunger Games stylist turned cat-woman we meet in Mockingjay? The TV Tropes pages for the Capitol Characters suggests that she isn't. I'll be a little annoyed if that's so, Snow turning on his cousin to restore the family name would be brilliant.

But I still haven't finished the book.

 

Tigris is indeed the same character

[Morieris]

On 5/23/2020 at 11:33 AM, antovolk said:

 

  Hide contents

Tigris is indeed the same character

 

 

Spoiler

Ok cool, I was thinking "Don't tell me Collins friggin' FORGOT about it." That's a story worth reading, moreso than this one.

 

[Morieris]

Finally finished it. This would not make a very compelling movie in line with the rest of the franchise.

 

Spoiler

Seriously it should have had less about Snow's Peacekeeper duties and more about his actual rise to power by killing and scheming. The interesting things happen AFTER the story is done!

 

[The Horror of Lucas Films]

Suzanne Collins' "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" sold more 500,000 copies last week, even as many of the country's bookstores were closed or offering limited service because of the coronavirus pandemic. The total includes print, e-books and audiobooks, according to Collins' publisher, Scholastic. 

NPD BookScan, which tracks around 85% of the print market, reported Wednesday that "Songbirds and Snakes" topped last week's list with 270,000 copies sold. Collins' book, a prequel to her previous "Hunger Games" novels, comes 10 years after the author seemingly wrapped up the Dystopian series with "Mockingjay." The Associated Press in a review praised the new novel, released May 19, as "mesmerizing" and called Collins "a master of building a fascinating world around complex characters."

 

The opening for "Songbirds and Snakes" was slightly higher than the numbers reported for "Mockingjay" in 2010, when Scholastic announced first-week sales of more than 450,000. Collins' novels, which also include "The Hunger Games" and "Catching Fire," have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and are the basis for a billion-dollar movie franchise.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/05/27/new-hunger-games-book-ballad-songbirds-snakes-sales/5271675002/

[The Horror of Lucas Films]

Too much for a franchise that was completely forgotten, and were irrelevant according to some members here.

 

It just had the best debut of the series, despite pretty much every bookstore being closed. This is impresive as hell.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Eric in Boots

[Napoleon]

Will they try to turn this 1 book into a film trilogy like The Hobbit and Fantastic Beasts?

[antovolk]

To be split into two

https://pipocasclub.com.br/2020/10/16/jogos-vorazes-novo-filme-sera-divido-em-duas-partes-confirma-diretor-da-paris-filmes/?amp&__twitter_impression=true

[DAJK]

Ahhh the Hunger Games, my nostalgia source for early-2010s

[TheDarkKnightOfSteel]

On 10/16/2020 at 10:02 PM, antovolk said:

To be split into two

https://pipocasclub.com.br/2020/10/16/jogos-vorazes-novo-filme-sera-divido-em-duas-partes-confirma-diretor-da-paris-filmes/?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Because that worked wonders for the last book right?

 

[antovolk]

Thankfully (for now) the producer has denied that a split will be happening...