Suzanne Collins and the next Hunger Games movie

Publishers Lunch

In advance of the opening of the next Hunger Games movie Catching Fire on Friday -- expected to gross $170 million or more domestically in its opening weekend -- Time's Lev Grossman has been posting a five-part interview with author Suzanne Collins and director Francis Lawrence this week. 

Collins' broad theme is: "I think we put our children at an enormous disadvantage by not educating them in war, by not letting them understand about it from a very early age. It’s not about scaring them. The stories didn’t scare me when I was a child, and in these cases they’re fictionalized. Gregor is set in a fantasy world and The Hunger Games is set far in the future. I don’t get the sense that the young readers are frightened by them. I think they’re intrigued by them and in some ways I think they’re relieved to see the topic discussed."

Among her favorite books are Lord of the Flies; 1984; Brave New World; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; and  We Have Always Lived in a Castle. The first and second parts are also online.