Francis Lawrence To Return To Direct 'The Hunger Games' Prequel 'The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes'

The Hunger Games fans, get ready!!

Francis Lawrence has signed on to direct the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Deadline reports.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes centers on Coriolanus Snow at age 18, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem. Young Coriolanus is handsome and charming, and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, he sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the Tenth Hunger Games… only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor the girl tribute from impoverished District 12.

The filmmaker also directed all four of the series’ previous films for Lionsgate, and the production company will also be bringing back quite a few of the creative team from the film franchise.

The prequel book was announced last June, and will be released by Scholasticon May 19th in print, digital and audio formats in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.