‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ Is ‘Less Violent’ Than The Original

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence said the upcoming sequel is “less violent” than its predecessor.

Lawrence replaces The Hunger Games director Gary Ross, and said he was eager to make changes to the second installment in the franchise. Ross confirmed last April that he wouldn’t be returning for the sequel because of the “fixed and tight production schedule” set by Lionsgate.

“There’s a lot less person-on-person killing in this one. The important theme is the idea of allies and having to work with people you don’t necessarily trust,” Lawrence said.

“Reliance on others versus reliance on self. It’s still intense but there’s less violence,” he added. “I’m more interested in somebody’s reaction to violence or the consequence of it than the blood itself.”

Jennifer Lawrence, who reprises her role as Katniss Everdeen in the sequel, said she feels there is a “good balance” of violent scenes in Catching Fire and its predecessor.

“I don’t know if there’s more or less action in this movie – it’s the same,” Lawrence — no relation to the director — said. “In the first and second movie there’s a good balance of violence.”

Francis Lawrence said he also wanted to take a different approach to the camerawork on Catching Fire.

“I thought there could be more sophistication to the clothing and my version of naturalistic is very different,” Lawrence said. “I like handheld [cameras] but I’m not into that shaky cam look. I tend to use wider lenses. I think viewers will have much more of a sense of what makes up the Hunger Games arena and what the boundaries are.”

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, industry insiders believe The Hunger Games: Catching Fire could make $185 million in its opening weekend. However, Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate are expecting the film to make between $140 million and $150 million.

“Between Jennifer Lawrence’s exploding popularity and the momentum from the first movie, ‘Catching Fire’ is going to be a cultural phenomenon, and will be significantly bigger than the original at the box office,” Exhibitor Relations’ Jeff Bock said.