Exclusive: Sunrise on the Reaping director explains necessary book changes

Sunrise on the Reaping, the second prequel to the The Hunger Games trilogy, hits cinemas next week. Based on Suzanne Collins' 2025 novel of the same name, the film is set 24 years before the events of the first movie.

But fans who like to devour every one of Collins' novels before they hit the big screen, may notice some differences between the book and the movie.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Sunrise on the Reaping director Francis Lawrence explained why some tweaks were necessary to bring Collins' latest story to life on film.

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"I had read the manuscript two times, and then our tradition is we get together for about a week in New York and break down the book," Lawrence explained.

"I just remember telling Suzanne [Collins] that it felt like there was a period between Beetee coming to Haymitch at night with part of the plan and getting the games started that was going to probably need some compression."

"I knew that post-games the way the book was written that there we were going to have to find some compression," he continued.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that you're losing actual story points, if you just lay the book out and the way the movie's going to laid out, you have to figure out how to mush things around a bit in terms of pacing.

Related: All five Hunger Games movies are streaming on BBC ahead of Sunrise on the Reaping release

"Honestly, reading this one, I felt like the adaptation was going to be much easier than, let's say, Ballad. Ballad, I think, was just a trickier one structurally."

The film follows 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada) during the 50th Hunger Games, which have an added twist thanks to it being the Quarter Quell. This time, each district is required to send twice the number of tributes.

As he forms alliances with fellow tributes Maysilee Donner (Mckenna Grace) and Ampert Latier (Percy Daggs IV), he attempts to take the Games down from within.

The film has already received praise from fans during special preview screenings, with one even hailing it as "the best Hunger Games yet".

Lawrence himself has compared it to 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, saying that it contains many of the same elements that fans were so drawn to.

Related: Jennifer Lawrence confirms "emotional" Hunger Games return

"Why I say it's a return to form really is just that I know that people really like the reapings, the train rides to the Capitol, the chariots, the interviews," he explained.

"There's a structure, a sense of scale, a sense of the extravagance of the capital, just all these different elements that I think people crave in these movies that aren't necessarily present in the Mockingjays or Ballad in the same way."

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is released in cinemas on 20 November.

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Stephanie is a freelance news writer, who previously covered WWE and AEW for Digital Spy.

After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she studied journalism at Birkbeck University.

Outside of her work at Digital Spy, she writes about pop culture, with a special focus towards Irish media and how it intersects with politics.

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.