Director Francis Lawrence has yet to even wrap his first Hunger Games film, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, but the helmer is apparently doing a stellar job, as Lionsgate has just announced that he is booked to direct the final two Hunger Games films. Lawrence will again be joined by stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth for the third and fourth installments of the already-massive YA franchise cash cow based on Suzanne Collins’ book series.
The second film, Catching Fire, is currently filming in Atlanta. From a script by Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt, that film will send heroine Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) and her possible paramour Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson) straight back into a brand new Hunger Games arena, mere months after the two barely escaped their last round in the battle-to-the-death. Catching Fire arrives in theaters on November 22, 2013.
Screenwriter Danny Strong has been tasked with splitting Collins’ final book into two pieces for Mockingjay. That book centers on (spoiler alert?) Katniss being (somewhat unwittingly) tasked with leading a revolution, and all the unexpected (read: terrible) consequences that comes with that. The Mockingjay films will hit theaters on November 21, 2014 and November 20, 2015.