The Hunger Games 2- Writer, Director Confirmed

We haven't got too long now to wait until The Hunger Games, Liongate's big screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins' fantastic teen fantasy novel, arrives in British cinemas, but so confident are Lionsgate that it's going to be a success, they've announced the writer and director for a sequel. Based on Catching Fire, the second instalment in the book series, the new film will be written by Simon Beaufoy and directed by Nick Ross, the latter of whom helmed the first movie so clearly knows what he's doing. I always think it's a bit of a gamble to commission a sequel before the first film succeeds or bombs, yet it's becoming more and more of a trend- just look at Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars or more recently The Amazing Spider-Man and Twilight, and you'll see that distributors rarely wait for the green light of critical or commercial success to go ahead for another entry. The approach seems to have cost the Percy Jackson series, which will have held off on its sequel for three years once The Sea Of Monsters debuts in Summer 2013. Nevertheless, trailers so far for The Hunger Games have been very promising, and whatever the outcome, we and Lionsgate will come to realise if a film franchise is a viable option for Collins' works when it hits cinemas on March 23rd.