The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Pre-Production

The Hunger Games movie was created with the intention of starting a franchise. Before it came out, Simon Beaufoy (who won an Oscar for writing Slumdog Millionaire) was hired to adapt Suzanne Collins's Catching Fire, the book that was a sequel to The Hunger Games novel. After The Hunger Games opened to colossal box office income, Lionsgate announced their intention to get started on a sequel.

20th Century Fox announced they would start filming an X-Men: First Class sequel in January of 2013. Since Jennifer Lawrence, star of The Hunger Games series, had signed a contract with Fox before agreeing to work on Hunger Games films, Lionsgate would need to have finished shooting Catching Fire before January or would need to post-pone it several more months. Lionsgate opted to hurry production, fearing their stars would age too much, people would lose interest in the franchise, and the Thanksgiving 2013 release date would be lost if they didn't. This left only 9 months to finish all of pre-production and shooting.

The Hunger Games' Director Gary Ross was hesitant to return. He had always stated the first book was his favorite and he was never known for big-budget franchise work. He officially declined to make the sequel when Lionsgate announced it needed to finish shooting by the end of 2012.

Lionsgate quickly looked for a new director. The studio/distributor eyed Bennett Miller (Capote; Moneyball) and David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises; A History of Violence) before deciding on Francis Lawrence (Constantine; I Am Legend). This was regarded as an odd coincidence since now both the director and star shared the same name despite not being related in any way.

To help shape the story for Lawrence's vision, Michael Arndt was hired to rewrite the screenplay. Like Beaufoy, Arndt had won an Oscar (for Little Miss Sunshine).

On May 24, 2012, the new title for the movie was officially announced. To keep both the franchise name and the book name easily identifiable, the movie was titled The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Rumors stated Philip Seymour Hoffman was being courted for the role of Plutarch Heavensby, but the first official casting announcement came when on the week of Independence Day, with Jena Malone--at that time best known for her supporting role in Sucker Punch--cast as Johanna Mason. Malone beat several other actresses up for the role, including Zoe Aggeliki and Mia Wasikowska. A few days later, it was confirmed Hoffman has signed on for the role of Heavensby.