Well, the TV networks are already banking on nostalgia withseemingly never-ending reboots and revivals, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that the movie industry is once again jumping on the bandwagon and hoping to bring back two hugely popular film franchises.
In a call with Wall Street analysts last week, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said that the studio is hoping to bring more tales from Twilight and The Hunger Games to the big screen. Jon stated “There are a lot more stories to be told, and we’re ready to tell them when our creators are ready to tell those stories.” The creators in question, Stephenie Meyer and Suzanne Collins, aren’t on board yet. In fact, they’ve pretty much moved on from their best-selling YA novels.
There has been chatter in the past about possible prequels to The Hunger Games, but, if it does happen, Jennifer Lawrence is not interested in playing Katniss again, She recently announced “I wouldn’t be involved. I think it’s too soon. They’ve got to let the body get cold, in my opinion.” She’s right, you know. It’s only been two years since Mockingjay – Part Two and no one has really been clamoring for another film since then. Author Suzanne Collins has yet to weigh in on this subject as well.
It has been five years since Twilight: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 wrapped up the story of Vampire lovers Edward and Bella, and if the franchise would come back, it would most likely have to be some sort of spin-off of one of the other characters in the Twilight universe. Author Stephenie Meyer has moved on, serving as executive producer for the adaptation of Daniel O’Malley’s supernatural spy thriller, The Rook, for Starz.
Admittedly, these two franchises aren’t in my “demo,” so this news was met with a resounding “meh” from me. I tried to watch the first Twilight, but couldn’t make it through and kind of liked the first Hunger Games movie (although the Japanese movie Battle Royale told the same story so much better). And I never read page one of either book series. It does seems to me, however, that both series came to a fitting end. Am I wrong? Is anyone wanting to see these franchises revived? Does Hollywood really need to beat another dead horse?
Photos: Getty Images, WENN.com
I don’t think the hunger games would do well with a reboot this soon, but a twilight reboot interests me because the originals wee bad and I’d like them to get father from the source material without the threat of rabid fans since it’s a little bit away from its heyday.
I kind of think that a Hunger Games TV series might work in a dark, TWD kind of way.
But Lionsgate have been talking about this for years, there was supposed to be a Hunger Games stage show at one point. It’s just talk.
The Twilight movies were rancid but the source material was pretty awful
My bestie and I tried to watch the first movie. We were rolling on the floor with laughter at how bad it was. Did the director ask everyone to be as lifeless as possible, or did it just work out that way?
Megan, the first Twilight movie was the only one even remotely worth watching, imo. So needless to say they only got worse. Pure dreck.
Like we need more silly remakes… where are original ideas? Where?
Creativity and originality are two things that make money-people nervous. Make it hard to predict the pretty profit penny.
Hunger Games weren’t an oriinal idea anyway.
Yawn. Wake me up when they decide to remake the Harry Potter films.
Wake me up too… so I can punch whoever decides to remake the Harry Potter films. I just don’t know if I could stand it if someone tried to redo 10 years of my life.
I wouldn’t mind if they redid Harry Potter movies with better scripts and characterisation, and better child actors.
I get they’re a nostalgia cornerstone for a lot of people but as films, they’re just about serviceable (and the first two are dire, who told that hack Chris Columbus to make Home Alone with spells?)
The first 2 HP fioms are atrocious indeed. Home alone with spells is an apt description.
The first two are terrible. My hubby and I rewatch them every year/year and a half, and I’ve gotten to the point where we fast forward through a lot of 1-2 .
The only good thing I can say for them is the cast is excellent (minus Dumbledore, sorry Richard Harris fans).
See I love love love the books but can only tolerate the movies. The child actors are just so terrible. I actually really like Daniel Radcliffe but as he grew up he was absolutely nothing like the Harry of the books who ended up tall, handsome, and a charismatic leader. Dan had none of that and it just didn’t work. He also couldn’t portray the darker side of him and the struggles he went through convincingly. In the final book you really start to see why it was Harry who was the one, because he puts it together, he makes decisive moves, it’s him in the lead at last not just falling into things. In the movies they give most of his big moments to Hermione because it’s not believable for Harry to do these things. Also the ham-fisted direction in most of those movies was terrible. Some of the casting decisions were odd (the french girl should have been waaaay more otherworldly – she was just an average pretty blonde girl) and Richard Harris was the sleepiest Dumbledore when he was supposed to be energetic and spry (imagine Ian McKellen in the role – too close to Gandalf for him to do it if course; but he would have captured Dumbledore so much better). Plus I passionately hated what they did to the ending which was perfect in the books and silly in the movies (and also took away from the reason he does end up winning because they wanted to make it more of a physical battle between the two). In any case, they could definitely do this better; but they’d need to wait a while to attempt it. Maybe over a tv series on a premium channel instead of across movies?
@SKF- Clémence Poesy (Fleur) is actually a casting decision I really liked, precisely because she’s very charismatic and can be highly captivating without looking like a doll. But the movies underwrote her part (as they did with most of the supporting characters) and it ended up coming off rather bland – waste of a good actress, imo.
And yeah, like you I love the books but the movies are just not for me. They not only gave half of Harry’s moments to Hermione, that fool Steve Kloves handed all of Ron’s major ones to her too. I’ll never not be annoyed by that. Daniel Radcliffe has clearly evolved as an actor since and deserves credit for the range of his post-Potter filmography and the quality of his work, but as Harry? He tried, but he’s not quite my Harry. It’s just that enough children have seen him in the part while the books were still coming out, that his is the image in their heads when they think of Harry Potter.
The French girl in the book was supposed to be almost other-worldly beautiful. The actress who played her in the movie was a bow-wow.
They should have replaced Grint and Radcliffe by the fifth movie when it became evident that neither of them would grow to be more than five foot six.
They botched the final confrontation between Harry and Dumbledore horribly. And why did they make Harry’s parents look middle aged? In the book they both died in their early twenties.
i hate to say this, but i might give a twilight related series pr movie a chance if it were something about alice and jaspers backstory. that was the only interesting part in the entire trilogy.
That would be amazing! They were my favorite couple in the series. That story line should definitely be revisited.
When I saw a reference to this last week, I immediately thought of Jasper and Alice as well, esp Alice. However, would Stephanie M be willing to sign off on these stories?
Re reboots- any franchise that makes the $$$ these two did, of course they’ll want to reboot it!!
Sadly, original/smaller films are out there-but to see them in a theater? Good luck with that. I live in a medium sized city, which is blessed to have an independent movie theater. But even then its get in quick, bec they don’t don’t stay long.
I hope they’d recast the Jasper role though. He was terrible.
Like we need more silly remakes… where are original ideas? Where?
On the other hand how many Spiderman reboots are there?
But please do something original.
Please, no.
Battle Royals was awesome. Watched it subtitled in a dorm room with my friends, one of my first international films. I actually remember sharing the Mockingjay books with those friends, describing them as like dystopian Battle Royale. It’s darker though from what I remember.
I was obsessed with BATTLE ROYALE/REQUIEM. Haven’t rewatched them in years.
The hunger games were such a pale copy
I kind of want to do a rewatch now, it will hold up right?
Yes it does.
A few years ago i found english language translation of the books too. Satisfying read.
I loved Battle Royale too!
There’s some really good YA they could adapt rather than reboot.
The Chaos Walking YA trilogy adaptation is in production. I’m a bit worried about it because the books are genuinely classy and everything I’m seeing so far is that the behemoth will corporatise it to the extent it’s all spoiled.
But there’s another series about fertility and longevity by Gemma Malley, which I think would make a brilliant teen/youth version of Handmaid’s Tale, for instance.
Ingo (RIP Helen)? Noughts and Crosses? Oh, and Malorie Blackman recently rewrote Othello into a space epic. That would be a good big budget film!
I love a shakespearean retelling. Especially when it’s well done. i still haven’t seen a better retelling of Othello than the film OMKARA. 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU has stood up well too.
Me too. There’s (was, he died) another YA author, Mal Peet, who also did Othello, set in the footballing world of South America. Truly classy work.
Ooh! Now I think of it, someone just updated The Midwich Cuckoos to a multicultural London tower block of the Grenfell kind. That also could be a great film, right?
You know, i’ve never read John Wyndham. No excuses since i have all the novels courtesy of broadsheet newspaper free novel giveaway. Not even when ‘ day of the triffids’ was on the telly recently.
Midwich as a YA adaptation would be very interesting. Do you know who has rewritten it?
ETA: on that note, i might have to dust off the original and read it.
Love the film adaptation, and that’s as far as i’ve ever gone in JW source material.
Yes! Classy YA and Trashy YA are two of my absolute favorite genres. There are tons of one offs and series they could look to beyond the usual suspects.
It’s this book, LAK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fallen-Children-David-Owen-ebook/dp/B01M639S5Y
It’s even diverse – black, brown and white central characters with a big focus on urban deprivation. Seriously – all the ingredients for a YA-to-film adaptation.
Awesome – indeed. I’m less keen on the genre-driven YA but that any actually literary, genuinely classy YA even exists never gets acknowledged.
Lionsgate is hurting and borderline DESPERATE as a studio right now so this doesn’t surprise me. He had to tell the shareholders something. This is pretty bad though. Twilight isn’t Spider-Man, a reboot this early wouldn’t work. It’s only one story…a stupid, terrible story…but one story. And they’d have to recast or use the side characters so one cares about as much. What someone thinks the lead actors would come back? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!….well, maybe poor Taylor Lautner would.
For Hunger Games they’d have to pay Jennifer Lawrence more than the first movie cost. And the last movie dropped at the box office. People were over it!
Taylor Lautner peaked with Twilight. I felt so bad for him. It was obvious that he was a one note actor. And his agent didn’t know how to parlay that into a career like other such actors eg Swarzeneggar (sp?!) Or Lundgren or Van Damme.
I agree, Taylor seems like a really nice guy, but he is not the most talented actor. He’s had some modest success in TV comedy roles, may be there is a future there for him.
@Mia4S – exactly. These franchises were popular but they’re not pop-cultural touchstones like Star Wars or Spider-man (or even Harry Potter).
Obviously they have their fans, but for the most part, it’s safe to say their moment has passed. THG had some good scenes but the entire tone of that universe is so grim and miserable, if I have to see a dystopia onscreen I’d rather watch Mad Max: Fury Road or even the OG, Battle Royale.
Well twilight is a crappy book series and an even worse movie series. And I love the Hunger Games as I got into them right after graduating from Harry Potter. Lionsgate did not do the books justice so I would trust them with more stories anyways.
So it’s a pass for me
If they were extra corny like Sharknado or some other SyFy movie series, then I’m totally on board.
You need to get the Rifftrax commentary to play with the Twilight movies. Absolutely hilarious.
No. Twilight was a cultural phenomenon that had its time. Let it rest. Hunger Games … I mean sure. If Suzanne C. wrote a prequel, I’d read it. But do we need another movie? Ugh.
Ugh, just no. Studios need to stop bleeding successful franchises for every cent. There is a reason extra and unnecessary films end up flopping.
I think if it’s imaginatively retold, it can be very good even if the last retelling is still fresh in memory eg *Tim Burton’s Batman films vs Chris Nolan’s Batman films.
* not including the 2 non-Tim Batman films,
Those sagas were successful in their timeline but I don’t think anyone cares enough to actually watch the rebooted version, like someone pointed out, the last Hunger Games didn’t make as much as the two precedent movies. Those two books are very successful but they’re not cult or original enough to be rebooted successfully.
I get the incentive of producing THG reboots, even though I don’t see how they could top JLaw’s Katniss, but Twilight? A series that is known for being the worst franchise of all time? Whose going to tune in or pay for that?
I wouldn’t mind seeing prequel hunger games. More about the years leading up to the Katniss years. Maybe even a movie about the first hunger games? That would be interesting. Anything after Katniss wouldn’t be appealing.
I won’t lie, I would be interested in a Twilight remake as maybe a mini-series. I would love to see new actors playing the roles and seeing what they would do with them….and to see if they could do it better. True, the original movies were going to be cheesy no matter what because the books were cheesy, but they might have had a fighting chance with different actors. I blame the majority of the miscasting on Catherine Hardwick, who directed Twilight. She was too caught up in that young group of actors that she likes to use over and over again, like Nikki Reed and Emile Hirsch–who is solely responsible for Kristen Stewart being Bella because he was the one who convinced Hardwick she needed to cast her in the lead. So instead of being true to the books she chose actors she thought were “cool”, who didn’t necessarily fit their parts. I think Rob Pattinson was a decent choice for Edward, but it was obvious he hated his own role by the second film. KS was NOT a good choice for Bella at all. The only one who seemed to fit his role well was Taylor Lautner, but I think having gleaming white teeth and big friendly smile helped there.
Noope. Like it or not kristen was the only lead actor to get good reviews as Bella and she and Robert’s chemistry is what kept the momentum going for 5 movies. Catherine Hardwicke basically saved tge franchise with her casting.
I enjoyed the books up to Breaking Dawn which is very stupid and i realky liked the first movie. The others were ok fir what they were.
Hunger games were mostly good books ( mockingjay is terrible) but the movies are bad.
No reboots ir remakes are needed. Ever
I’d SO watch a prequel to Twilight. What? I love garbage.
I hope this was a Parks and Recs reference (I love April)
Geez, the studio must be desperate.
Honestly, I can’t see either of these working – maaaaybe Twilight could because ‘vampire love story’ is p much an entertainment perennial and you could just slot in two different characters, but the Hunger Games? Does anyone really want to see more of miserable dystopia land onscreen as entertainment, given what the real world is like right now? I’d rather watch Battle Royale.
imo the #1 hurdle is that neither Twilight or THG has the broader pop-culture classic staying power of Harry Potter/Star Wars. Their moment has passed, Lionsgate did everything they could to milk them including splitting the final movies, but I really think the gen public is over it, going by the last film’s dwindling box office. Maybe try something on Netflix, at most.
I think it depends on how the remakes are handled. In 1990, we all dismissed THE HANDMAIDEN’S TALE as niche sci fi dystopian fantasy which wasn’t a patch on the book nor did it set the BO on fire. Also, highly unlikely premise.
The TV show has benefited from a better adaptation AND the right timing.
Also, Buffy. Horrid movie (1992), great TV show just a few years later in 1997.
Not Buffy the movie! That was campily delicious. We still relive that death scene from the vamp, Amilyn. I had to google his name.
Good point, LAK. I just don’t think this is the time for them, The Handmaid’s Tale feels spot-on for 2017 but I don’t think the Hunger Games has that kind of resonance.
And yes, making them work may be a matter of a shift in medium and tone – I can’t see the original crapsack miseryguts feel of the Hunger Games pulling in viewers now, but if they made it slightly less grim (Rogue One is a good example of how to do a darker story without making it hopeless or devoid of adventure), maybe it could work.
Squirrel4Ever: Amilyn 4 eva-a-h!
Also, Ben Affleck in his first film role. lol
…but seriously, who would have thought that movie would begat such a glorious show?!
Teacakes: i actually think THG was a lighter version of BR. Reading the books of both franchises, you realise how much Suzanne Collins lightened the story.
As a tv show, there is so much material that can be used without showing the actual games eg the different districts, the former champions, the Capital, the train, the resistance etc
Battle Royale is that much better because it doesn’t wimp out on its darkness or lighten things up – it’s grim but still a great story, and has interesting characters. And the movie was great too, it’s a cult classic for a reason.
As for THG, like you said it lightens the concept considerably but the whole problem with it remains the tone, because it commits to misery in a very YA-lite way – I don’t care to see more parts of a world that’s basically painted in different shades of miserable and oppressed (and the only parts that aren’t, their people effectively get cast as the villains).
Off topic—but inspired by the Jennifer Lawrence pictures. She can be so sensational looking. She was good as Katniss but I thought her performance in American Hustle was over-the-top fabulous. Loved the scene where she was vacuuming and lip synching to Live and Let Die ( I think). A pleasure to watch.
I Know! Do the sequels, but get Jennifer Lawrence to play Bella, and Kristen to play Katniss. Come on! If they are going to milk it like that, might as well try a little switcheroo.
It’s b/c these are movies that created threads/universes. You can make a million vampire movies – why not?
As long as you distance yourself from the writer and her moronic books. She has established the origins/universe – good enough. But her anti-abortion/pro-Mormon values will not sell that many movies. Pay her some sort of smthng and use the heritage she has established ti make better films.
Vampires are cyclical. Now nobody cares about them. In 5 years, they will be interesting again.
Much as I love YA books, I find they rarely translate well into screen adaptations. Not sure why, but I suspect it’s the limitations in the source materials. The only one I’m looking forward to is for Throne of Glass, but really they should probably put a moratorium on the genre for new movies or reboots rn.
After reading a synopsis of the first book, the first thing that pops into my head is NIKITA the movie not the tv show. In other words, Nikita retold as YA and set in a sci fi fantasy world.
Please no.
I loved Twilight & HG (books and movies) but it’s a firm no from me on a reboot of either. No prequels or squeals either – nope no need.
Now, whenever a studio wants to step up and do my favorite childhood book “Invitation to The Game” I’m 100% on board with that with casting suggestions.
Ugh my niece, 9 (almost 10) just discovered The Twilight movies. She is re watching them over and over and over it is driving me crazy as the tv that has them on demand is in my room. She is OBSESSED I tell you. I am afraid they are talking about more movies because they are sensing a new generation of young girls is coming and they might catch them again with those stories.
On the plus side my niece is improving her english as the movies have no subtitles when they are on demand. When she watches them elsewhere they have so she compares and understands the dialogs. Aaaand no sex and no inappropriate scenes for the most part so….I try to tell her that not all love stories end like that but she has those dreamy eyes right now so it’s useless.
The hunger games ripped off battle royale, without a doubt. But. The hunger games was a better movie, even though it wasn’t as unique. I’m a sucker for emotional conflict, and situational ethics though.