Hunger Games director regrets splitting Mockingjay into two movies
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The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence has admitted he regrets breaking Mockingjay into two parts.
The director helmed the final three instalments — Catching Fire, Mockingjay - Part 1 and Mockingjay - Part 2 — in the action franchise, which followed Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as she rebelled against the oppressive nation of Panem.
Despite the commercial success of the series, fans and critics were disappointed when Suzanne Collins' final novel in the trilogy was adapted into two movies. Now, Lawrence has revealed he harbours understands why.
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"I totally regret it. I'm not sure everybody does, but I definitely do," he told PEOPLE of the decision to spread Mockingjay's story over two films.
"What I realised in retrospect — after hearing all the reactions and feeling the kind of wrath of fans, critics and people at the split — is that I realised it was frustrating. And I can understand it," Lawrence continued.
"In an episode of television, if you have a cliffhanger, you have to wait a week, or you could just binge it, and then you can see the next episode. But making people wait a year, I think, came across as disingenuous, even though it wasn't.
“Our intentions were not to be disingenuous. In truth, we got more on the screen out of the book than we would've in any of the other movies because you're getting close to four hours of screen time for the final book. But I see and understand how it frustrated people.”
Lawrence is returning to the series for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel set 64 years before the events of the original film. The plot follows a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he meets Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute for the 10th Hunger Games.
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Due to be released in cinemas next month, the film boasts the longest runtime in the series so far: 157 minutes. However, Lawrence wouldn't allow the prequel to be told in two parts.
"There was never a real conversation about it. It's a long book, but we got so much shit for splitting Mockingjay into two that I was like, 'No way. I'll just make a longer movie'," he told PEOPLE.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be released in cinemas on November 17. The previous Hunger Games movies are available to stream on Prime Video UK.
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