The Hunger Games Series

[Taryn74]

This is going to be amazing.

[Browncoat]

I am REALLY looking forward to it.  That trailer is something else.

[topanga]

On 9/20/2023 at 1:02 PM, jah1986 said:

I read the book and I am so looking forward to seeing this in theaters, but man if the book didn't have me rooting for Snow, that's just wrong. Cast looks strong.

The book made me sympathetic towards Snow at times, but he always seemed self-serving, and he lacked empathy for anyone who wasn't in his family. 

 

On 9/20/2023 at 3:21 PM, Browncoat said:

I am REALLY looking forward to it.  That trailer is something else.

Same here. When I read the book, in my mind, Lucy Gray looked like a young Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly). So Rachel Ziegler's casting is perfect. All of the cast looks strong. 

[BetterButter]

‘Hunger Games’ Prequel ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Lands SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement

[tv echo]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Special Feature ‘Welcome Back to Panem’
Lionsgate Movies   Oct 18, 2023

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Official Clip ‘A Brand New Role’
Lionsgate Movies   Oct 25, 2023

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Special Feature ‘Music’
Lionsgate Movies   Oct 26, 2023

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Olivia Rodrigo – 'Can’t Catch Me Now'
Lionsgate Movies   Nov 1, 2023

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Official Clip ‘Run’
Lionsgate Movies   Nov 1, 2023

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Olivia Rodrigo – 'Can’t Catch Me Now'
Lionsgate Movies   Nov 1, 2023

Edited November 2, 2023 by tv echo

[Guest]

I felt the book had huge, huge flaws (but this is not the place for that) but I am really looking forward to seeing it on the big screen despite that.

[methodwriter85]

9 hours ago, deaja said:

I felt the book had huge, huge flaws (but this is not the place for that) but I am really looking forward to seeing it on the big screen despite that.

It was overly indulgent but forcing it into 3 hours should actually help a lot. I also read numerous reports that they punched up the Games portion a bit so that there's a little more action.

Edited November 4, 2023 by methodwriter85

[Browncoat]

Just got back from seeing this, and it was pretty good.  There were a few changes that I wasn't best pleased with, and they simultaneously spent more time on the games and shortchanged them.  I mean, it's a long book -- I get that things will be changed or omitted, but I can't help but think I might have done things a little differently.   

Viola Davis was absolutely perfect and fabulous as Dr. Gaul.  She terrified me!  Fionnula Flanagan was a great choice as the Grandma'am.  And Peter Dinklage made a good Dean Highbottom.  Whoever played Maude Ivory was too old.  I'm not familiar with Tom Blyth, but he did an okay job -- he's definitely pretty!  And I think I'm one of the few people who actually like Rachel Zegler.  She was good, although I was a little disappointed in her rainbow dress.  I think I hoped it would be brighter.  

I can recommend it for fans of the series, if only for the brilliance that is Viola Davis.

[SeanC]

I enjoyed it a fair bit.

I liked Hunter Schafer as Tigris (it seems like it took a few years for Hollywood to start putting her in things, unlike some of her Euphoria costars), though when you consider that both Tom Blyth and Fionnula Flanagan were clearly cast with an eye to somewhat echoing Donald Sutherland's accent/diction, plunking her Valley Girl-adjacent accent in amongst them was slightly funny.

Rachel Zegler was pretty good. Her character is a bit on the theatrical side, which I suspect turns off some people, but she seems to be doing a Loretta Lynn impression for the music.

[tv echo]

Billie Eilish’s ‘Barbie’ Song, Robbie Robertson’s Scorsese Score Honored at 2023 Hollywood Music in Media Awards
By Paul Grein     November 16, 2023 
https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2023-hollywood-music-in-media-awards-billie-eilish-robbie-robertson-win-1235473365/

Quote

In the HMMAs’ newest category, best song – sci-fi/fantasy, Olivia Rodrigo and Dan Nigro won for co-writing “Can’t Catch Me Now” from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

[Black Knight]

A friend and I saw this today. We both loved it and thought it the best out of the HG movie franchise, and plan to see it again.

I think it's an improvement from the book (which we also each really liked) in that it fleshes out Lucy Gray, and Lucy Gray's relationship with Snow, a lot to be able to actually see and hear her for ourselves instead of only viewing her through Snow's POV. Zegler, along with the rest of the cast, was excellent.

It really adds to the end of the movie to listen to "Can't Catch Me Now" as the credits play, right after listening to the last line of the movie, about how the things you love destroy you. One theory is that Katniss is a descendant of Lucy Gray, but the juxtaposition of the song supports another theory, that Snow's experiences with Lucy Gray led him to make unwise choices later on, in Katniss's time, that led to his downfall. So much of the value of this prequel has been how it sheds light on the future.

One moment that struck me during this movie was when Dr. Gaul caved to pressure and agreed to declare Lucy Gray the victor and get her out of the arena. Many years later, Seneca Crane made a similar decision, opting to save both Katniss and Peeta rather than have the Games end with no victor and viewers upset, and Snow had Crane killed for it. It says something about how the older Snow changed his view on Gaul's choice.

[Browncoat]

There were two things that were changed from the book that bothered me a lot, and they both were kind of the same thing -- Snow maintained plausible deniability throughout the book.  In the first instance, he gave Lucy Gray an empty compact, and suggested she fill it with her own powder.  Meaning, of course, the rat poison that was in abundance in the zoo.  He did not give her a compact full of rat poison.  The second thing was when Snow recorded Sejanus with the jabberjay.  He was extremely careful not to have his voice on the recording so he would not be implicated in anything Sejanus was planning.  The only time he was sloppy about things was with the handkerchief and the snakes.  

[Black Knight]

On 11/24/2023 at 5:55 PM, Browncoat said:

Snow maintained plausible deniability throughout the book.  In the first instance, he gave Lucy Gray an empty compact, and suggested she fill it with her own powder.  Meaning, of course, the rat poison that was in abundance in the zoo.  He did not give her a compact full of rat poison.

I don't really see how that was plausible deniability. Where was Lucy Gray going to get loose cosmetic powder to fill the compact with? If she'd brought some with her, somehow, then of course it already would've been in its own container.

The mere fact she had the compact was enough. They cut this line out of the movie, but in the book, Dean Highbottom makes a point of telling Snow that Lucy Gray fought really hard trying to keep the compact from being taken from her. They all understood how incriminating the compact was for Snow. Maybe in a world where there was a legal system in which a defendant had to put on trial and be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt before suffering any punishment, perhaps, and so Snow's attorney could try to argue that he didn't really mean that Lucy Gray should be filling up the compact with rat poison, but that isn't Panem.

On 11/24/2023 at 5:55 PM, Browncoat said:

The second thing was when Snow recorded Sejanus with the jabberjay.  He was extremely careful not to have his voice on the recording so he would not be implicated in anything Sejanus was planning.

I can see one reason the movie made this change: So that Lucy Gray would be suspicious right at the start of their planned getaway. In the book, she's not suspicious until the killed-three-people bit, but in the movie, she's clearly suspicious before that and really pounces on that part as a result. But I also don't think it was that big of a change. In a way it's more logical, in that it doesn't require Gaul to be as omniscient as in the book. I don't think Snow really needed to worry about being implicated; the fact that he recorded Sejanus, and turned that recording in, would be enough to establish him as someone who was acting as an informer in drawing Sejanus out about his plans, rather than someone planning to take part. It's not really any different from when law enforcement makes use of informers that are either planted, or flipped.

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

I don't really see how that was plausible deniability. Where was Lucy Gray going to get loose cosmetic powder to fill the compact with? If she'd brought some with her, somehow, then of course it already would've been in its own container.

It was, though.  Snow never meant for her to fill the compact with loose cosmetic powder.  He meant for her to fill it with the rat poison at the zoo.  But by not explicitly telling her to fill it with rat poison, just with her "own powder", he maintains plausible deniability.  He could always say that he simply gave it to her as a token, and Lucy Gray took the initiative on her own to use it for rat poison.  

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

I don't think Snow really needed to worry about being implicated;

And yet he did worry about it.  He was in the hut with Sejanus, Tam Amber, Mayfair and Spruce -- rebels.  He used a gun illegally obtained by the rebels to shoot Mayfair.  He was already implicated.  The difference between police using informants is that Gaul didn't plant him there to be an informant.  Gaul didn't even mean for him to be in 12. He chose that district and to be an informant on his own to save his own skin.  Keeping his voice out of it helps that.  Again, plausible deniability -- he could always say someone else must have recorded that, and he knew nothing of any rebel plots.  Lots of people were helping round up the jabberjays.  But once Sejanus and Spruce were dead, and Snow found the guns, he no longer needed to worry, except about Lucy Gray.  She was the only one left who could bear witness.  Snow being Snow, and being Capitol, he just couldn't trust anyone, much less someone from the Districts.

I don't think Gaul ever intended Snow to be in the districts more than the summer anyway.  She was just teaching him a lesson.

[Hanahope]

15 hours ago, Browncoat said:

And yet he did worry about it.  He was in the hut with Sejanus, Tam Amber, Mayfair and Spruce -- rebels.

And clearly being a member of a district family would not save him.  It did not save Sejanus. and from such a crime as murder of the mayor's daughter.  certainly Snow seemed to fair no harm or punishment by being late to places, being gone for an entire day without notice and such in D12.

 

I presume Snow only meant by recording Sejanus and sending it to Gaul, that she would pull Sejanus out of D12 (or tell his parents to do so).  But then the incident with Spruce, Mayfair and Tam changed everything and the mayor pulled his own weight, which was a lot closer to home, to have Sejanus executed immediately. And Sejanus was in some respects, the only "conscious" that Snow had that the system could change.  Once Sejanus was gone, Snow felt secure that he could no longer be implicated, and Lucy Gray's abandoning him (because she could no longer trust him), he became the man we later knew.  

[Spartan Girl]

Finally saw Songbirds and Snakes tonight. I knew it would be different from the book, but even without Snow’s inner monologue, I think the movie retained his entitled attitude and the fact that he wasn’t as nice as he let everyone think. Shall note, Tom Blyth is hot, though by the end you could really see the resemblance to Donald Sutherland’s Snow.

Rachel knocked it out of the park like I knew she would. Her singing was fire. I really hate that she’s getting so much grief for stupid crap, because this movie proves West Side Story was no fluke.

Same goes for Josh. He was great as Sejanus. I hope he’s in more stuff.

Viola killed as Gaul, and Peter as Highbottom. I read Tom’s mom was PISSED when she saw the end because she had a huge crush on Peter lmao.

Overall, it was great. I didn’t mind the changes even if the more interesting supporting characters were either sidelined or cut.

 

[absnow54]

I struggled with the book. A lot. So in comparison, I actually thought the film was well done. It trimmed a lot of the fat that made the book hard to read for me. I still had a hard time connecting with the characters, and while Sejanus was less annoying than he was in the books, he was less annoying.

The highlight, without a doubt, was Jason Schwartzman as Lucky Flickerman. I didn't think anyone could come close to Stanley Tucci's perfection as Caesar, but Jason Schwartzman pulled it off.

[Kel Varnsen]

I watched the new movie today with my daughter because she loves The Hunger Games. It was pretty good and I appreciate that they didn't try to draw it out into two movies just to make more cash. But one part about the end didn't really make sense to me. At the very end Peter Dinklage says that he and Snow's dad came up with the hunger games as a crazy drunken idea. But Snow senior kind of ran with it and took steps to make it happen. And Dinklage was so horrified that he set Snow senior up as a rebel traitor as revenge for all the bloodshed he caused. But the very first scene of the movie takes place 3 years before the first games and that's where Snow and his cousin and grandma find out that dad was a rebel. But why did Dinklage set him up as revenge for all the bloodshed he caused when it was still 3 years before the games would even happen at that point?

[Spartan Girl]

6 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

And Dinklage was so horrified that he set Snow senior up as a rebel traitor as revenge for all the bloodshed he caused. But the very first scene of the movie takes place 3 years before the first games and that's where Snow and his cousin and grandma find out that dad was a rebel. But why did Dinklage set him up as revenge for all the bloodshed he caused when it was still 3 years before the games would even happen at that point?

Uh, that’s…not what happened. All they sound out in that flashback scene was that the father was killed by a rebel. Highbottom never set him up or anything like that.

[Kel Varnsen]

3 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Uh, that’s…not what happened. All they sound out in that flashback scene was that the father was killed by a rebel. Highbottom never set him up or anything like that.

That makes a bit more sense. I watched the opening again and the first time I watched it, it sounded like granny said that he was killed and he was a rebel. Which I thought sort of explained why they didn't have much money and why he was kind of an outsider at school. But watching that part again I see she says he was killed and it was a rebel. 

But at the end isn't Highbottom's whole self loathing speech about how he hates Snow senior for making the hunger games happen and how he got his revenge on him for all the bloodshed. But if daddy snow died 3 years before it happened how is he responsible (for that matter when did he come up with the idea if they were at war)? And if revenge was killing him, what exactly was the revenge for?

[Spartan Girl]

19 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

But at the end isn't Highbottom's whole self loathing speech about how he hates Snow senior for making the hunger games happen and how he got his revenge on him for all the bloodshed

He meant he got revenge on him by taking it out on his son, which was all for nothing since Snow “landed on top” with the Plinth fortune. He didn’t kill the father. 

20 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

But if daddy snow died 3 years before it happened how is he responsible (for that matter when did he come up with the idea if they were at war)? And if revenge was killing him, what exactly was the revenge for?

Highbottom came up with the idea while drinking in a bar with Snow Sr. It was a was meant to be a drunk joke. But Snow Sr turned in it into Dr Gaul, giving Highbottom the credit. Gaul and the Capitol used it to punish all the districts after the war ended—and Highbottom was so horrified by his part in it that he never forgave Snow Sr for it. But again, he did not kill him.

[Kel Varnsen]

11 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Highbottom came up with the idea while drinking in a bar with Snow Sr. It was a was meant to be a drunk joke. But Snow Sr turned in it into Dr Gaul, giving Highbottom the credit. Gaul and the Capitol used it to punish all the districts after the war ended—and Highbottom was so horrified by his part in it that he never forgave Snow Sr for it. But again, he did not kill him.

Of course the old get revenge on a guy 12 years after he dies for something he would have had no awareness of by being mean to his son, who also has no idea why. 😁

[snickers]

So I’m very late on seeing this- I’m ashamed to say I bought this book when it came out and still have not read it yet- but I will

i quite liked this, however my love/hate with SC and her writing stems with the fact she cannot do romance, she screwed up Katniss’s relationships and she does it again with snow and Lucy Gray…she set a perfect opportunity to come up with something great to cause a rift or cause snow to go evil, but that’s what she comes up with??? 
 

sometimes I don’t get how she got published 

I did really like seeing the capitol in early years after the war, I was quite shocked how old school their technology was!!! They came a long way in those 65 years 😆

[absnow54]

On 12/30/2023 at 9:47 PM, snickers said:

i quite liked this, however my love/hate with SC and her writing stems with the fact she cannot do romance, she screwed up Katniss’s relationships and she does it again with snow and Lucy Gray…she set a perfect opportunity to come up with something great to cause a rift or cause snow to go evil, but that’s what she comes up with??? 

I think the filmmakers did a terrible job adapting Katniss's relationships, but I thought the romance written by Suzanne Collins was mostly great. The movies tried too hard to make it into a Twilight-esque love triangle, but it was much more subtle in the books. Or maybe it's just that book!Katniss and book!Peeta checked off all of my favorite tropes, so the romance was an easy sell for me.

I didn't like the romance between Snow and Lucy Gray, because she was just his Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who didn't fit into the box he wanted, and that dynamic was well played out through the 2010's. The point of Snow is that he didn't need a catalyst to go evil. He was evil and self serving all along. His journey was getting his foot in the door to regain his elite standings in an already evil society, even after being given the opportunity to embrace humanity.

[jah1986]

Finally saw this over the weekend, I loved it! I think it's one of the best Hunger Games movies, right after Catching Fire. I really enjoyed the book and I thought they did a good job with adapting the book. I've never seen Tom Blythe before, but thought he was a great Snow. Rachel Z was really good. Viola Davis was fantastic and terrifying. I think Lucy started to really doubt Snow when she found out he was leaving 12 to go to officer training. Funny thing is I don't think Snow meant Lucy any harm until he realized she had turned on him. Sorry to realize how Tigris ended up after seeing where she and Snow started.

I wouldn't mind another book telling us how Snow eventually became president, I mean there's a 64 year gap between movies...

I think I'll add this one to my HG library.

[tv echo]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes got 2 nominations for 2024 Costume Designers Guild Awards... 

Costume Designers Guild Reveals 2024 CDGA Nominations: ‘Barbie’, ‘Oppenheimer’ & More
By Erik Pedersen     January 4, 2024
https://deadline.com/2024/01/costume-designers-guild-awards-2024-nominations-1235694710/ 

Quote

See the full list of nominations for film, TV, shortform costume design and costume illustration below. The 26th CDGA ceremony is set for Wednesday, February 21, at NeueHouse Hollywood.
*  *  *
Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film
Barbie – Jacqueline Durran
Haunted Mansion – Jeffrey Kurland
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes – Trish Summerville
The Little Mermaid – Colleen Atwood & Christine Cantella
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire – Stephanie Porter
*  *  *
Excellence in Costume Illustration
1923: War and the Turquoise Tide – Maggie S. Chan
Haunted Mansion – Barbra Araujo
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Song Songbirds & Snakes – Oksana Nedavniaya
Loki: 1893 – Felipe Sanchez
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire – Jason Pastrana

[tv echo]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes blu-ray release date will be Feb. 13...

Amazon link

Edited January 9 by tv echo

[tv echo]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes got an Artios Award nomination (winners announced on Mar. 7)...

Casting Society Artios Awards: ‘Barbie,’ ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ Among Nominees
BY TYLER COATES    JANUARY 12, 2024
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/2024-artios-awards-movie-nominations-list-1235786254/

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THE ZEITGEIST AWARD
Barbie (Warner Bros.): Lucy Bevan, Olivia Grant (Associate Casting Director)
The Flash (Warner Bros.): Rich Delia, Kate Ringsell, Adam Richards (Associate Casting Director)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Lionsgate): Debra Zane, Dylan Jury, Simone Bär (Location Casting)
Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire (Netflix): Kristy Carlson, Jeanette Benzie (Associate Casting Director)
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Paramount Pictures): Wittney Horton, additional voice casting by Ruth Lambert and Robert McGee, Eve Streger (Associate Casting Director)

[BetterButter]

 

[tv echo]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes won an SCL Award...

Billie Eilish, Ludwig Göransson, Nicholas Britell, Olivia Rodrigo, Robbie Robertson Among Winners at Society of Composers and Lyricists Awards.
By Jazz Tangcay, Diego Ramos Bechara   Feb. 13, 2024
https://variety.com/2024/artisans/news/billie-eilish-ludwig-goransson-nicholas-britell-society-of-composers-and-lyricists-awards-full-winners-list-2024-1235909896/ 

Quote

Olivia Rodrigo and Dan Nigro won outstanding original song for a drama or documentary for “Can’t Catch Me Now” from “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” Britell took home the prize for outstanding original score for a television production for “Succession.”
*  *  *
Outstanding Original Song for a Dramatic or Documentary Visual Media Production

Jon Batiste, Dan Wilson- “It Never Went Away” – “American Symphony”
Nicholas Britell, Taura Stinson – “Slip Away” – “Carmen”
Sharon Farber, Noah Benshea – “Better Times” – “Jacob the Baker”
Lenny Kravitz – “Road to Freedom” – “Rustin”
Olivia Rodrigo, Dan Nigro – “Can’t Catch Me Now” – “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”

Edited February 14 by tv echo

[tv echo]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes won 2 People's Choice Awards...

Taylor Swift, Barbie and Grey's Anatomy Score at 2024 People's Choice Awards: See the Full List of Winners
By Benjamin VanHoose  Updated on February 18, 2024 10:25PM EST
https://people.com/peoples-choice-awards-2024-winners-list-8567529 

Quote

The Action Movie of the Year

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Fast X
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
John Wick: Chapter 4
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes - WINNER
The Marvels
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
*  *  *
The Action Movie Star of the Year

Brie Larson, The Marvels
Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Gal Gadot, Heart of Stone
Jason Momoa, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Keanu Reeves, John Wick: Chapter 4
Rachel Zegler, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes - WINNER
Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Viola Davis, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Edited February 19 by tv echo

[BetterButter]

New ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Movie, Based on Suzanne Collins’ Next Novel, Set for 2026

[tv echo]

(source)

March 18, 2025 - Sunrise on the Reaping book will be published.
November 20, 2026 - Sunrise on the Reaping movie will be released.