HUNGER GAMES Casting Will Never End; Film Series Extended To Four Movies

I haven’t covered much of the Hunger Games news, simply because there’s so much of it that it’s impossible to tell the signal from the noise. Lionsgate has gotten a shit ton of free publicity by announcing every single background character’s casting, even when those characters don’t have actual names.

But this bit of news is intriguing because it speaks to an alarming new trend in movies - stretching franchises out way too far. Deadline says that the Hunger Games trilogy of books is being adapted into FOUR movies - and this is before they’ve even finished shooting the first film. This puts Hunger Games in the rarified ranks of Twilight and Harry Potter as franchises that have been artificially extended (not to mention The Hobbit, split into two films).

Does Hunger Games deserve or need four movies? Beats me. I have a long plane flight this weekend, so maybe I’ll finally read the first book, which has been sitting on my Kindle for a while. In the meantime let’s ponder what this trend means.