Billy Ray is set to write the screenplay for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

Not only is a new Hunger Games novel out this year, but with the source material must also come the film adaptation. Franchise producer Nina Jacobson, alongside her producing partner Brad Simpson, will return to produce The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping through their Color Force studio. It will be the sixth outing for Color Force since bringing the franchise to Lionsgate in 2012. Francis Lawrence is in talks to direct the film; Lawrence has helmed four previous films in the Hunger Games franchise – every film since Catching Fire.

Among the many news being revealed at this year’s CinemaCon, The Playlist is reporting that the new film will also see scribe Billy Ray return to write the script for Sunrise on the Reaping. This new film will follow the prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes from 2023. The novel is also a prequel that takes place 24 years before the events of the first book.

Lionsgate announced the film adaptation almost as soon as the book was announced. “Suzanne Collins is a master storyteller and our creative north star,” said Adam Fogelson, chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “We couldn’t be more fortunate than to be guided and trusted by a collaborator whose talent and imagination are so consistently brilliant. We know Hunger Games fans worldwide will be spellbound by where Suzanne has focused this next extraordinary story. The Second Quarter Quell is legendary and looms large over the history of the Games, even into the time of Katniss Everdeen a quarter-century later. Like fans around the globe, we are eagerly anticipating this exciting return to Panem.”

“From the beginning, Lionsgate has been a wonderful home and partner for the Hunger Games franchise, and I’m very excited to be collaborating with Adam and the team as we bring this next story to theaters in 2026,” said Suzanne Collins.

The book’s official synopsis, via Indigo, reads:
“The phenomenal fifth book in the Hunger Games series! When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for? As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.”

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