New 'Hunger Games' book 'Sunrise on the Reaping' to get movie treatment
The newly announced fifth "Hunger Games" book, titled "Sunrise on the Reaping," will be heading to the big screen like all of its predecessors.
Lionsgate said Thursday, on the heels of Suzanne Collins' latest book announcement, that "Sunrise on the Reaping" will be adapted into a feature film to be released Nov. 20, 2026. The book will be published March 18, 2025.
Francis Lawrence, who has directed all the "Hunger Games" movie adaptations except the first, is in talks to direct the new film, the studio also shared.
A synopsis of "Sunrise on the Reaping" notes that the story will "revisit the world of Panem twenty-four years before the events of 'The Hunger Games,' starting on the morning of the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell."
Collins said her inspiration for the book came from "David Hume's idea of implicit submission and, in his words, 'the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.'"
"The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative," she added. "The question 'Real or not real?' seems more pressing to me every day."
Fans of "The Hunger Games" will remember that the 50th Hunger Games, a.k.a. the 2nd Quarter Quell, was won by District 12's victor Haymitch Abernathy. Woody Harrelson played him in the "Hunger Games" film series starring Jennifer Lawrence.
"Sunrise on the Reaping" follows in the book series that began with "The Hunger Games" in 2008 and continued with the sequels "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay," released in 2009 and 2010. A prequel, "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," was published in 2020.
All previous books have been adapted to the big screen as well.
There are more than 100 million copies of the previous four "Hunger Games" books in print and digital formats worldwide, and the five feature films have grossed more than $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office.
