Screenwriter/actor Danny Strong was chosen to pen the script to the first half of Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, based on the final novel in Suzanne Collins’ dystopian trilogy.
And now, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Strong now can officially begin work on Part 2 of the finale, meaning that Lionsgate liked his adaptation for Part 1. The final book in the trilogy will be split into two films, in similar fashion to the conclusions for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Twilight: Breaking Dawn.
For many, Danny Strong is and will forever be Jonathan, an awkward nerd living in Sunnydale in Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. Appearing semi-regularly, his character developed more when he became part of the Evil Trio originally considered the Big Bad of Season 6.
He’s come a long way since his Buffy days, however, earning an Emmy award for the HBO movie The Game Change, a story about the 2008 presidential election. Woody Harrelson, who had a role in that film, also portrays Haymitch in the Hunger Games series.
It is not known yet where Part 1 will end and where Part 2 will begin, but glancing at the halfway point on my kindle version of the book makes me think that it may be somewhere around the scene where someone gets choked. (That’s a non-spoilery version of what happens). If you’ve read the book, you know what I’m talking about, and I think that scene or shortly before it would be a good stopping point.
Not good for the fans, who will scream at the screen when the final credits appear, but good in the sense of having a cliffhanger of an ending.
Catching Fire, the second film in the series is scheduled to be in theaters November of this year, and Mockingjay should follow in November 2014.