Oscar nominated screenwriter Billy Ray is returning to The Hunger Games franchise and will adapt Suzanne Collins’ upcoming prequel novel The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping for Lionsgate. As previously announced, the studio set a global release of Nov. 20, 2026 for the pic.
Ray adapted the first Hunger Games film which grossed $695M at the global box office, $408M of that stateside; that pic launching Jennifer Lawrence as a marquee draw.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is being directed by franchise mainstay Francis Lawrence and produced by Color Force’s Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. Cameron MacConomy will executive produce.
Lawrence said on stage today at the Lionsgate CinemaCon presentation that cameras will roll this July. “It’s my favorite book in the series,” says Lawrence. Lionsgate Motion Picture Chair Adam Fogelson emphasized the book’s jawdropping shocking twist.
While the previous prequel, The Hungers: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, was set 64 years before the events of the original trilogy, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before that trio of Jennifer Lawrence films in the world of Panem, commencing on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. Those games are an important event in the canon as the victor was Haymitch Abernathy, the only winner from District 12 before Lawrence’ Katniss Everdeen and Josh Hutcherson’s Peeta Mellark’s tie win. Haymitch continues on to become a mentor, a character in the original movies played by Woody Harrelson.
Meredith Wieck and Scott O’Brien are overseeing the project for Lionsgate. Phil Strina negotiated the deal for the studio.
Ray received an Oscar nomination for penning Captain Phillips. His upcoming work includes the feature Animals now in production with Ben Affleck directing, and Burn the Water, his first novel, to be published March 3, 2026 by Scholastic Books. Ray is represented by CAA and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Rogal, Shikora & Clark.
Ray is the host of the Deadline Hollywood podcast Strike Talk.
First week sales for Sunrise of the Reaping at 1.5M copies sold are triple that of Collins’ Mockingjay.
