Director Francis Lawrence says he now understands why watching the two films left fans “disappointed”.
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Liam Hemsworth and Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Part 1″ (2014)
Looking back, director Francis Lawrence understands the mixed reaction to the split ending. The Hunger Games book for two films.
Lawrence returns in upcoming origin story The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes after directing 2013 And the flames will burst into flames and two Mockingjay movie.
The director (no relation to star Jennifer Lawrence, who plays main character Katniss Everdeen) tells PEOPLE he wouldn’t have split the book in two if he had a remake.
“I completely regret this. I’m completely sorry. I’m not sure everyone does it, but I’m definitely sorry,” he says.
In July 2012, it was confirmed that writer Suzanne Collins’ final trilogy would be adapted into two films. Mockingjay – Part 1 arrived in theaters in November 2014, and Mockingjay – Part 2 in November 2015.
Although Lawrence says the team agreed on “two halves Mockingjay had its own individual dramatic issues” and therefore entire arcs, he understands why some fans were upset by the wait between films.
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Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and Mahershala Ali in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Part 2″ (2015)” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/l9YPiMP5PVouGMVc.ixHZQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MQ–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/ people_218/e0432f4753476843cae784b0beae1c6c” class=”caas-img”/>
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Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and Mahershala Ali in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Part 2″ (2015)
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“Looking back and hearing all the reactions and feeling the anger of the fans and the critics and the people involved in the split, I realized that I realized it was upsetting to me,” Lawrence says. “And I can understand that.”
“In a TV episode, if you have a cliffhanger, you have to wait a week, or you can just binge it and then see the next episode. But making people wait a year, I think it seemed disingenuous, even though it wasn’t,” he adds. “Our intention was not to be insincere.”
Lawrence notes that, on the other hand, they were able to adapt more of the book into two films.
“In truth, we got more out of the book on screen than we could have gotten in any other film, because the final version of the book is close to four hours of screen time. But,” he says, “I can see and understand how it upsets people.”
Harry Potter started this trend by announcing in 2008 that the latest book, Deathly Hallows, would have received the treatment in two films. Following the example from there was Twilight’With Dawn duet and Divergent‘s Loyal – although this second part was never realized on the big screen.
And it has not disappeared completely: Denis Villeneuve is squeezing many Dunes films from one book, Peter Jackson made three films from one book Hobbits book and upcoming Wicked The film adaptation will consist of two films.
Coming soon The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, prequel to The Hunger Games The universe is based on a book by Collins published in 2020. It features a completely new cast, but much of the same crew is behind the camera.
Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” //media.zenfs.com/en/people_218/e0c065a8fb7f0e66c6d5357d6ca57317″ class=”caas-img”/>
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Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
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“The decision to make just one film based on the book was always the intention,” says Lawrence. Even if it meant making the longest The Hunger Games movie yet. (Duration 2 hours 36 minutes.)
“I would never let them split the book into two parts,” Lawrence says. “There was never a real conversation about it. It’s a long book, but we got so much crap for sharing Mockingjay for two – from the fans, from the critics, from everyone – that I said: “No way.” I’ll just make a longer film.” “
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in theaters November 17.
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Read the original article about People.