With The Hunger Games: Catching Fire currently in production, the race is on to get The Hunger Games: Mockingjay prepared and today, Lionsgate announced that writer-actor Danny Strong has bagged the scripting duties.
Director Gary Ross co-wrote The Hunger Games with author Suzanne Collins and after he jumped ship, Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy joined with Collins to co-write the script to Catching Fire. Now the studio wants fresh talent for the two part finale and as a recent Emmy winner for HBO’s Game Change, Danny Strong was their pick.
Strong lent his writing skills to director Jay Roach’s HBO film Recount and has his first theatrical feature, Lee Daniels’ The Butler – a White House drama – coming up, which he wrote and produced. In addition, he’s got Dan Brown’s (The Da Vinci Code) latest, The Lost Symbol on his slate for future adaptation.
With Strong becoming the go-to guy for blockbuster adaps we could be seeing a lot more of him on the big screen. Prior to picking up the quill, he made his mark acting in TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls and Mad Men.
No director has been announced yet but The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is scheduled for release on November 21st, 2014 with the second part releasing the following November.
Do you think Danny Strong is capable enough to handle the scripting challenge of a Hunger Games two parter? Have your say in the comments below.
