"The Hunger Games" franchise comes to an end, for now, this weekend with the release of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2," which means a void will be open for dystopian YA fare that will need to be filled. And while the "Divergent" and "The Maze Runner" series are chugging along, they hardly match the phenomenon that Katniss and co. brought to multiplexes around the world. And if producer Simon Kinberg ("Fantastic Four," "The Martian") has his way, the long developing remake of "Logan’s Run" could be the franchise to reign supreme next.
Chatting with Collider, Kinberg reveals that the plans for "Logan’s Run" go beyond one movie, and cites "The Hunger Games" directly as the model he and Warner Bros. are chasing. "It’s something that potentially is their ‘Hunger Games’ kind of franchise that is about a younger audience for a younger audience with a big idea," he explained. "And ‘Logan’s Run,’ as you know, is the granddaddy of ‘Maze Runner’ and ‘Hunger Games’ and so many of these books and movies now. So yeah, they’re seeing it as a potentially really big franchise.”
READ MORE: ‘Star Wars’ And ‘X-Men’ Producer Simon Kinberg The Latest To Try And Remake ‘Logan’s Run’
But if you think Kinberg is running before he walks, he makes it clear that a franchise doesn’t happen if the first movie isn’t any good. "…the focus is on ‘Make a great movie.’ It was ‘Let’s make one great movie that people fall in love with but be prepared that if they do, we could make future films and what would they look like and where would you go again with the character in the next film?" he said.
As for what elements of the original movie will remain, and while will be jettisoned, we’ll have to wait and see, but don’t call it a remake. "I guess I would call it reinterpretation from the original film rather than just a whole scale recreation,” he said.
A director is still being sought for the project, and while "The Hunger Games" was/is a hot movie, that moment is ending, so it’ll be interesting to see if Warner Bros. can play in that ballpark, and if the audiences will want more of the same, or similar. One wishes the studio would try and do something original, but these days, that’s a faint hope.