In a recent interview with People magazine, the director of the successful ‘The Hunger Games‘ mentions, “I totally regret” having made the decision to divide ‘Mockingjay’, the end book of the saga into two films, ensuring that he understands how frustrating that could have been for the fans.
The director, Francis Lawrence, made his perception public and commented that; “Making people wait a year was seen, in my opinion, as something hypocritical, although it really wasn’t“, however this commercial strategy generated a lot of profits for the film, although it certainly wasn’t enough from a narrative point of view.
On the other hand, there are also good things about this decision, and that is that by being divided into 2 parts, the director had the opportunity to include more details from Suzanne Collins‘ dystopian novels, and in addition make the plot more interesting and lasting, even so his opinion is firm and he says; “I’m not sure if others regret it, but I definitely do“.
The same filmmaker will carry out the adaptation of the prequel ‘The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’, which raised the question of whether they would use the same strategy, to which Lawrence quickly refused and responded clearly and accurately; “I would never let them divide the book in two“.
In a recent interview, ‘Hunger Games: Mockingjay’ director Francis Lawrence admitted he wouldn't divide the final book into two films if he had the opportunity.
"I totally regret it. I totally do," he said. "I'm not sure everybody does, but I definitely do." #HungerGames pic.twitter.com/F7SGC27Frw
— No Context Culture (@NoConCulture) October 16, 2023
Although it is true that it is a longer book, the director explains that he will not make the same mistake that he was criticized for once, so he revealed; “We will make a longer movie” so the prequel will be the longest installment of the saga, with a duration of 2 hours 36 minutes, and will be available on November 17th in theaters.
What do you think of this decision by the director to divide these productions of ‘The Hunger Games’?