INTERVIEW: The Hunger Games producer talks about adapting the books, franchises, Gary Ross & 3D

The Hunger Games producer, Nina Jacobson, talked about franchises, adapting The Hunger Games Trilogy to the big screen, Gary Ross' departure from the franchise, not making the Hunger Games on 3D and more insightful words about the creation of The Hunger Games films at the Producers Guild of America's Produced By Conference. Read the interview below!

“The belief you can design a franchise just because you want one has been responsible for some of the worst movies we’ve seen in a long time,” said Nina Jacobson, the former head of production at Disney who produced the blockbuster hit The Hunger Games. “The most damning thing in Hollywood right now is the belief filmmakers decide if it’s a franchise. The audience decides.” 

Jacobson said most potential franchises start with successful books, as was the case with The Hunger Games, or other well-known properties like games or products. That requires the filmmakers to be aware there are people with a strong attachments to the material, and that they “need to respect the ardent fans,” said Jacobson. 

However, when you develop the script and cast, you still need to do what you think is best for your movie. “You can’t let the fans cast the movie,” said Jacobson. 

One thing Jacobson did not want for The Hunger Games was to make the movie in 3-D. She said that the creative team felt that despite the violence, there was a thoughtful quality to the books and that they were ultimately very ethical. “They are about young people and violence without exploiting young people,” she explained. 

Jacobson said they did consider making it in 3-D but then felt it would make the violence more of the focus instead of having it be driven by the characters. “I think it would be distasteful,” said Jacobson. “We discussed it and discarded it early on.” 

Addressing the departure of director Gary Ross from The Hunger Games sequel, Jacobson, who previously had praised Ross’ capturing of the right tone as helping to make the film such a hit, admitted “it’s scary to change.” She added “when Gary left I thought ‘this is what a producer does’ – you have to adapt and figure out how to turn risk into opportunity.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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