Billy Ray Returning To ‘Hunger Games’ Franchise, Will Adapt Prequel ‘Sunrise On The Reaping’ – CinemaCon

Anthony D'Alessandro

1 April 2025 at 1:57 pm·2-min read

Billy Ray Returning To ‘Hunger Games’ Franchise, Will Adapt Prequel ‘Sunrise On The Reaping’ – CinemaCon

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 date of November 20, 2026. Check out the animated motion logo below.

Ray adapted the first Hunger Games film, which grossed $695M at the global box office, $408M of that stateside. That 2012 pic launched Jennifer Lawrence as a marquee draw.

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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 onstage today at the Lionsgate CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas that cameras will roll in July. “It’s my favorite book in the series,” she said. Lionsgate Motion Picture Chair Adam Fogelson emphasized the book’s jaw-dropping twist.

While the previous prequel, The Hungers: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, was set 64 years before the events of the original trilogy, Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before that trio of 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 by Scholastic Books. Ray is represented by CAA and Lichter Grossman Nichols.

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.

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