Now that production on The Hunger Games is wrapping up, Lionsgate and the team behind the franchise need a new project. They’ve picked Homer’s The Odyssey, since their ambition knows no bounds.
Francis Lawrence, who directed the last three Hunger Games films, will helm this new version of The Odyssey. Nina Jacobson will produce and Peter Craig will write. Jacobson oversaw the Hunger Games films, while Craig co-wrote the Mockingjay movies. Craig also worked with Ben Affleck on The Town screenplay.
According to Deadline, Lionsgate has this project on the fast track. That makes sense, since The Hunger Games is the studio’s only big active franchise and it ends this November. (The studio also has Divergent, but those films haven’t done nearly as well as The Hunger Games.)
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erik Feig will oversee with executive production VP Jim Miller and development director James Myers. Deadline reports that Feig is the one who came up with the idea and pitched it to Lawrence while finishing up Mockingjay - Part 2.
Entertainment Weekly also confirmed that the project is in the works.
Homer’s epic poem tells the story of Odysseus and his long journey home after the Trojan War. The story has inspired films like the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou and Kirk Douglas starred in Ulysses, a direct adaptation released in 1954. There was also a mini-series in 1997.
The project is in the very early stages, so there’s no casting yet.
Mockingjay - Part 2 hits theaters on Nov. 20.