Lionsgate Hires Game Change Screenwriter To Pen The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

With production well under way for the second installment of The Hunger Games series, Catching Fire, Lionsgate is turning some attention to the third installment, Mockingjay. The studio has tapped screenwriter Danny Strong to pen the two-part finale for the popular young adult sci-fi series.

Strong has just come off of winning two Emmy Awards for writing and producing the HBO political drama Game Change. He also won a Writers Guild of America Award for another HBO political drama, Recount, back in 2008. It looks like Strong will take his knack for writing political intrigue to Mockingjay, which is more politics heavy than the other books in the series, reports Variety.com.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay will be split into two parts, made concurrently, and released in 2014 and 2015. The third installment in The Hunger Games series will find our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, separated from Gale Hawthorne and Peeta Mellark. She tries to get back to them as a rebellion starts to form and Panem is at the brink of a civil war. Actors Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson will return for the final installment.

Danny Strong recently wrote the script for the movie The Butler, which will be Lee Daniels’ follow-up to The Paperboy. Strong got his start in Hollywood as an actor, with recurring roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and most recently, AMC’s Mad Men. Although Lionsgate has hired a screenwriter for Mockingjay, they have yet to hire a director to helm the two movies.

Part one of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay will open in theaters everywhere on November 21, 2014, and part two will open one year later on November 20, 2015.