The Hunger Games By the time the film adaptation of "The Hunger Games" was released in 2012, the publisher had reported over 26 million "Hunger Games" trilogy books in print, including movie tie-in books. "The Hunger Games" universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 12 districts in varying states of poverty. Every year, children from the districts are selected to participate in a compulsory televised battle royale death match called The Hunger Games. The novels were all well received. In August 2012, the series ranked second, exceeded only by the "Harry Potter" series in NPR's
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire April 19, 2012, it was announced that Francis Lawrence was offered the director position for the film. Lionsgate officially announced Francis Lawrence as the director for "Catching Fire" on May 3, 2012. Two days later, it was reported that Michael Arndt ("Toy Story 3", "Little Miss Sunshine") was in talks to re-write the script for "Catching Fire". On May 24, 2012, the film was renamed "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" and Arndt was confirmed as the new writer of the script. Arndt was paid $400,000 a week for re-writing the script. According to sources, the adaptation needed to be done