Hunger Games Prequel About A Young Snow Enters Production Next Year

The Hunger Games movie prequel, which focuses on a young President Snow and is based on Susan Collins' book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, will get started with production next year. Deadline reports that production is looking to begin in the first half of 2022.

The movie is already progressing "really, really well," Lionsgate movie boss Joe Drake said on an earnings call. The film is expected to be released in late FY 2023 or 2024.

Francis Lawrence will direct Ballad; Lawrence previously directed Catching Fire and Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2. Collins is writing the treatment, while Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) is penning the screenplay.

Ballad focuses on an 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, long before the events of the main Hunger Games books and movies when he's a horrible madman. "Young Coriolanus is handsome and charming, and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, he sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the Tenth Hunger Games… only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor the girl tribute from impoverished District 12," reads a line from the movie's description.

There have been no casting announcements yet, so we don't know who will play Snow or any of the other characters. Snow was played by Donald Sutherland in the Hunger Games movies.

The Hunger Games movies have proven to be immensely popular, bringing in more than $3 billion across the franchise. The series focuses on a life-or-death battle royale in a dystopian world.