Once you train an audience like seals to spend more, they'll keep coming. At least that's what Hollywood thinks as the trend of stretching out franchise finales continues. With Warner Bros. and Lionsgate respectively raking in dough by splitting "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows" and "Twilight: Breaking Dawn" into two-parters, the latter studio is going to continue that trend with "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay."
Lionsgate announced that "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1" and "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2" will be released one year apart, on November 21, 2014 and November 20, 2015. This pretty much ensures Jennifer Lawrence's calendar will be filled for the foreseeable future as she hangs around the Capitol, but perhaps more importantly for Lionsgate, it keeps their money train rolling for the next three years. It will be interesting to see just how they split the final book — which is frankly not any longer than "The Hunger Games" or "Catching Fire" — without turning it into a dragged out snorefest, something that even some Twihards admitted hampered 'Breaking Dawn' and its lethargic, non-event Part 1. It's a pretty callous emerging trend on behalf of studios and we wonder when audiences will revolt, but once they are invested into a story, it will be hard for them to break away. At any rate, it's all about the C.R.E.A.M.
Meanwhile, in far less important news, DreamWorks has stamped a February 7, 2014 date for "Need For Speed." The film is based off the car racing video game of the same name and will be directed with nuance and wit by "Act Of Valor" helmer Scott Waugh into what the studio hopes will be a "Fast & Furious" style franchise. Good luck to them. [Deadline]
