A Letter From Suzanne Collins

A Thank You to The Hunger Games Film Team

 

Having spent the last decade in Panem, it’s time to move on to other lands. But before I do, I’d like to say a tremendous thank you to everyone associated with the film franchise. I’m thrilled with how this quartet of films, which I find both faithful to the books and innovative in its own right, has been brought to life on the screen.

In an earlier letter I credited director Gary Ross for his wonderful rendering of the first book, but now I turn to Francis Lawrence who has so amazingly helmed the rest of the franchise. Creating three big budget films in three years, that’s a feat in itself. But I doubt many could do it with his incredible visual style,edge-of-your-seat action sequences, and hardcore commitment to difficult themes. Thank you, Francis, for showing up, for staying, for alway shearing me out, for your unfailing good nature, and for bringing your remarkable talent to these films.

Billy Ray, Gary Ross, Simon Beaufoy, Michael Arndt, Danny Strong and Peter Craig, gifted writers all, thank you for sharing your pens, brains, and wealth of experience as we transformed three books into four scripts. A screenplay is a very different animal than a novel, and it was a pleasure and an education to work with you and watch you weave your magic.

There’s no Hunger Games without Katniss. I hoped for someone good enough, and I got someone who exceeded all my expectations. Jennifer Lawrence, your emotional depth, luminous presence, and sheer power carry this story and I will always be grateful to you for opening the door and allowing it to come into your life. And for the rest of the cast, if I had a chance, who would I replace in these films? No one. I don’t think there’s a weak link in the chain, and what an exquisite chain it is. I still can’t believe half of you came onboard. You blow me away with your ability to bring out the humanity of these characters from under outlandish wigs, while fighting lizard mutts,pumped with tracker jacker serum, waging war and so much more. Thank you for volunteering for the Games and inhabiting these characters with such texture, color, humor and pain.  

Much thanks to our masterful Production Designer Phil Messina and the many top-notch designers who signed on. It has been a delight to watch you fashion and expand the world of Panem, whether by hand-crafted or computer-based means. From the excess of the Capitol to the claustrophobic hive of District 13 to the violent scenes of civil war,you have taken the ball and run with it in fabulously detailed and thoughtful ways, grounding the fantastical, and fusing disparate elements into a cohesive reality. And to composer James Newton Howard for his moving and evocative scoring of the franchise, which so hauntingly reflects the heart of the story.

For my producers, Nina Jacobson of Color Force, who was there from the beginning, and Jon Kilik, who joined us soon after, thank you both for bringing your dedication, energy, and many talents to this huge project. I can’t emphasize enough how grateful I am to you and the excellent team at Lionsgate for protecting the work, for not swerving away from the harder moments, and for allowing the themes and narrative of the books to play out as originally conceived. And sincere appreciation to Tim Palen for his brilliant marketing campaign, Julie Fontaine for her stellar PR, and the entire gang at Lionsgate for tirelessly presenting the franchise to a global audience.

Thousands of people have worked on these films in a myriad of ways, prepping, shooting, in post production, and promotion.  Please, anybody seeing them, take a few moments to watch the credits and acknowledge the enormous collaborative effort that goes into making a franchise.

For me, The Hunger Games Trilogy is part of a larger goal to introduce the ideas of just war theory to young audiences, but how much wider and more varied an audience came with the films, and the credit for that goes to all of you who contributed so much to this project.

Finally, to all the readers and viewers who have accompanied Katniss on her journey, thank you for playing a role in The Hunger Games, you are truly a vital part of the experience.  

May the odds be ever in your favor!

- Suzanne Collins

We are happy to share this letter from Suzanne Collins that originally appeared in On Our Minds Scholastic Blog on 11/17/15

Thank You For The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

Today we've got a guest post from Tracee Orman, one of the first people I followed when I joined The Hunger Games fandom, who also happens to be a teacher using THG in her classroom (lucky students). Since we're honoring the books this week, I couldn't think of a better person to write an ode to the woman who started it all, Suzanne Collins.  

I want to take a moment to thank Suzanne Collins for writing The Hunger Games trilogy.  I’m not sure my words here will be able to express the amount of gratitude I feel for what reading her books have done for myself, for my students, and for the thousands of students who read them each year, but I will try.

The first time I had heard of Suzanne Collins' novel The Hunger Games was in September of 2008. Stephen King wrote a review of it in Entertainment Weekly, which immediately caught my attention since I both respect King's opinion and thought it was interesting he was reviewing young adult lit. So I ordered the book on Amazon based on his review and it sat on my nightstand for nearly a year collecting dust with other books I wanted to read but never had the time. 

Of course, I’ve been kicking myself for not reading it sooner ever since.

Suzanne Collins helped me renew my love for teaching during a time where I didn’t think I would last in the profession another year. In 2009 I had a difficult group of students–mostly boys–in a remedial freshmen English class. I had lost all hope of ever finding any material they would even attempt to read. All my old stand-byes had been exhausted.

But then I remembered the book on my nightstand. Since my students were mostly into hunting, I thought perhaps I could at least read a little more about that world since it was foreign to me. Honestly, the description of The Hunger Games didn’t appeal to me at all.  But by the time I read the first few pages, I started to care about this sad futuristic world that was a result of our present-day abuse of the planet and of each other.

Collins drew me into the story because I was truly interested in how our actions today will affect future generations. But when I shared the novel with my students, I learned that her story-telling is so much deeper, richer than I had realized.

While I was initially interested in the world of Panem, some students were immediately drawn to Katniss and her survival skills. Some were enthralled with the concept of the Games, and some wanted to know everything there was to know about the Capitol and all its modern conveniences and gadgets. And many girls loved the idea of two good-looking boys vying for Katniss’s attention. There is literally something included in the novel to appeal to practically everyone. Nature-lovers, hunters, miners, gear-heads, techies, fashionistas, make-up and tattoo artists...everyone.

And it isn’t just the content of Collins’ novels that appeals to all readers. It is the way she tells the story. Her style of writing has a way of drawing the reader in using humor and suspense while keeping the reader engrossed with sarcastic dialogue and heart-wrenching moments. (Seriously heart-wrenching moments.)

At a time when I thought it could be my last year teaching, teaching Collins’ novels gave me hope for the future of my students and for my career as a teacher. The first time I shared The Hunger Games with students who absolutely hated to read (and vowed they wouldn’t read anything I assigned), I watched them transform into students who couldn’t wait to read the next chapter. It wasn’t a slow transformation, either. By the second day of reading in class, they fell in love with the story as I had. And I looked forward to class as much as they did. Teaching was no longer a chore or something I dreaded and wanted to stop doing. It was a passion again. For that, and so much more, thank you, Ms. Collins.

 

 

Tracee Orman

Hunger Games Lessons

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A Tribute to The Hunger Games Trilogy - The Books

Our 100 days of Mockingjay celebration burns on! This week we're honoring the place where it all began: Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games book trilogy.

 
Suzanne Collins created The Hunger Games from an idea born of late night channel surfing between real war coverage and reality television. Suzanne, the daughter of a career military man and Vietnam Veteran, has said that she wanted to write an age-appropriate war story for every age group. The Hunger Games is her war story for young adults. The trilogy's themes of poverty, socio-economic disparity, government corruption, propaganda, revolution, redemption, and the consequences of war mirror events in our current society.

The Hunger Games means different things to different people. For some, Katniss Everdeen is a strong and inspiring female role model, and for some she inspires as a survivor of poverty and PTSD. She's complicated, imperfect, damaged and an incredibly compelling lead character.

Some people adore the love stories. Suzanne wrote interesting, complex relationships without a typical fairytale ending in the lot: Katniss and Peeta, Katniss and Gale, Finnick and Annie, even Mr. and Mrs. Everdeen.

As we've seen throughout this 100 Days of MJ project, The Hunger Games means much more to people than a series of novels or a movie franchise. Seven of the ten most highlighted Kindle passages ever are from The Hunger Games trilogy, and The Hunger Games is the third most highlighted book OF ALL TIME, eclipsed only by The Bible and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. 

How You Can Participate This Week:


Suzanne's words are compelling and powerful, meaningful and resonant. We want to honor those words this week by asking you to share your favorite Hunger Games book quote or passage in a visual way. Take a quote that has made an impact on you and make an edit, write it out, take a photo – the possibilities are endless. Let your imagination run wild. Just feature the words of THG in a visual way and use the hashtag #THGTrilogy to share it on social media. 

We are partnering with our friends at Everlarked & Always (who made the beautiful edit above) this week. They'll also be sharing some of your tagged work on their Tumblr blog Everlarked & Always, so be sure to follow.

GIVEAWAY:

We can't have a new theme without a new giveaway. This week (Wed, Sept 9 - Tues, Sept 14th) ONE winner will receive:

A boxed set of The Hunger Games trilogy foil editions 

A set of 5 Mockingjay pins: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1, the new Mockingjay Part 2 pin that was given away at Comic-Con and a black Mockingjay pin (5 pins in total).  

Enter the giveaway through the widget below. Sharing a photo on social media is not required to enter, nor does it count as an entry BUT it sure is fun, and we can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Happy Birthday, Mockingjay!

 

Happy Birthday, Mockingjay! 5 years ago today, Suzanne Collins' final (and my personal favorite) book in The Hunger Games trilogy was released! Can you believe how quickly time has flown? 

Happy Birthday Suzanne Collins!

Happy Birthday to our queen, the wonderful Suzanne Collins! The Hunger Games trilogy has changed our lives, and we are inspired each and every day by the world she created in Panem. 

I don't write about adolescence. I write about war. For adolescents.

                                                                      - Suzanne Collins

Celebrating 3 Years of 'The Hunger Games' Films

Can you believe it's been THREE years since the premiere of The Hunger Games? I remember March 23, 2012 very specifically. We had just started this site a month before, and were very eagerly awaiting the film's arrival in theaters. I saw the movie twice on opening day and then went back to the theater to see it twice the next day too. It was a thrill to see a book that I loved so much adapted SO beautifully on screen. 

Remember these little babies??

What has #3Yearsof TheHungerGames meant to us? Here are a few highlights:

Jennifer Lawrence went from fairly unknown indie it-girl to the biggest movie star on the planet.

Josh Hutcherson broke our hearts as Peeta Mellark (and continues to do so).

 

We got to experience that a Hollywood franchise can stay true to the source material and fans, respect the intelligence of its audience AND actually be incredibly entertaining and successful!  

We experienced the shock of losing director Gary Ross, and the delight in realizing what a gift director Francis Lawrence would be.

We lost a member of the family.

Image courtesy HungerGamesLessons.com

The Hunger Games franchise broke records:

The Hunger Games was the #1 film 4 weeks in a row.

All 3 movies have held the #1 opening weekend spot for 2 or more weeks.

The Hunger Games is currently the 14th most successful franchise in history - with the LEAST number of films, mind you, and we're not finished! It is also the ONLY franchise with a true female lead, besides Twilight.

Catching Fire was the #1 movie of 2013

Mockingjay Part 1 was very nearly the #1 movie of 2014 (darn you, limited release American Sniper!)

Catching Fire is in the top 10 domestic box office grosses of all time.

And the list goes on.....

We fell in love with the commitment and talent of our director, producers, writers, and amazing crew.

Producers Jon Kilik, Nina Jacobson, author Suzanne Collins and screenwriter Peter Craig

Production Designer Phil Messina and Director Francis Lawrence

We fell in love with our cast over and over. 

We got to know YOU, our followers, friends, fellow fansites and THG family, who laugh, cry and freak out with us every day. 

Sandy from My Hunger Games, Tiffany from MJ.net and Molly from PanemPropaganda meeting (and geeking out over) Josh HutchersonAnd now we're in the countdown to the end of our beloved films!

What are your favorite memories from the last 3 years of The Hunger Games? Let us know in the comments! 

The Fire Will Burn Forever! 

Adapting Mockingjay From Page to Screen: Francis Lawrence, Nina Jacobson and Peter Craig Talk to BuzzFeed

Francis Lawrence and Suzanne Collins at the Mockingjay Part 1 premiere in Los Angleles

Adam Vary at Buzzfeed News has a series of fantastic articles up in which he interviews director Francis Lawrence, producer Nina Jacobson and screenwriter Peter Craig about adapting Mockingjay from the novel to the screen with help from author Suzanne Collins. These are definitely MUST-READ for the Hunger Games fan - filled with really interesting information about the choices they made and the process they went through with Suzanne Collins to adapt the book. *MAJOR SPOILERS* for Mockingjay the book and both films in this article and the Buzzfeed pieces. Proceed with caution. 

Producers Jon Kilik, Nina Jacobson, author Suzanne Collins and screenwriter Peter CraigWe are going to post a few of our favorite bits here, but suggest you read both (Part 1 and Part 2) in their entirety over at Buzzfeed. 

Suzanne Collins was instrumental to all of the changes made:

In order to separate that story into two distinct films while remaining faithful to the book, the filmmakers turned to Collins, who created separate outlines delineating the major character arcs and story beats for each half of her novel, helping the filmmakers find the central organizing principles of each of the two films. (Collins received a rare “adaptation by” screen credit on the film for her efforts.)

“We felt that the first movie would focus on the propaganda war, and getting Peeta back,” said [Nina] Jacobson. “The second movie [was] about all-out war, and taking Snow out. … Those big ideas were very much informed by Suzanne’s approach to how we would split the book into two movies.”

Katniss was made more active in the film:

Katniss spends long stretches of Mockingjay facing inward, ruminating over her plight far more than she participates in the main action of the plot.

“The rebellion that’s going on — Katniss is hearing about it and thinking about it, as opposed to us being able to go out into the districts to see it,” said Lawrence. “So turning a very internal half of a book into something more visual and cinematic, I think, was probably the biggest challenge, and something that Peter and Suzanne and Nina and I really worked on.”

Or, as Jacobson put it, “How do you have an active hero who’s not just shaking off the effects of war?”

One solution was simply to give Katniss more to do. “We did find places for her to be courageous,” said Craig, “and also stay true to Suzanne’s wish that she be very [affected by] PTSD, and she’s not somebody that anything is coming easily for anymore.”

Read more about depicting the rebellion in Panem, bringing Effie back into the fold, softening President Coin and District 13…for now, creating Peeta’s rescue mission, and choosing the ending HERE.

Read more about how a big change In “Mockingjay – Part 1” will affect “Part 2” HERE.  

Suzanne Collins Wins Christopher Award for 'Year of the Jungle'

The Hunger Games trilogy author Suzanne Collins won a Christopher Award for her autobiographical childrens' picture book Year of the Jungle (Kindergarten and up, Scholastic Press). Illustrated by James Proimos, the book recalls her attempts as a first-grader to stay brave while her father fought in Vietnam, and explores the effect of war on young children.

Created in 1949, The Christopher Awards are presented to writers, producers, directors and illustrators whose work affirms the highest values of the human spirit. Tony Rossi, The Christophers’ Director of Communications, says, “In a culture where hope can be in short supply, we joyfully celebrate the creative artists behind these winning works.”

The honorees were announced on April 2. The 65th annual presentation of the awards is scheduled to take place in New York on May 15.