‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay’ Wraps Up In Atlanta, Moving To Paris
Production for the final installation in Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games franchise has wrapped in Atlanta, Georgia. Nina Jacobson, one of the film’s producers, tweeted about wrapping, thanking The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence and the crew for all of their hard work.
Just wrapped Atlanta. My heart is full of gratitude for our amazing US #Mockingjay crew and Francis Lawrence @Hibbits who inspires us all
— nina jacobson (she/her) (@ninajacobson) April 18, 2014
Production for the films has been in Atlanta since 2012, when they began filming The Hunger Games: Catching Fire at locations in the city including the Marriott Marquis hotel for the interior living quarters of the training center footage, the historical Swan House for President Snow’s home, and the Georgia Dome for the actual training center. Production for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay will next move to Paris and then on to Berlin for final shooting.
This past January, Lionsgate production president Erik Feig told Variety that they’ve booked large apartment complexes outside of Paris for the purposes of shooting important battle scenes that will take place in the film’s capitol.
“Kubrick shot the [Full Metal Jacket] siege in London,” Feig said. “In a weird way, we love the idea of urban sprawl. So we [looked for] big buildings that have been around forever. We kept coming back to classic war movies, and we started thinking we should look into Europe.”
In Berlin, The Hunger Games has booked the massive Templehof Airport, which was closed six years ago, and fans have speculated that this is where they will film additional battle scenes and possibly be a location for District 2, where Katniss and the rebels will need to break into a mountain fortress called The Nut.
Last month, Lionsgate announced that there had been a last minute scheduling conflict between the production and actress Lily Rabe and Game of Thrones actress Gwendoline Christie had been called upon to replace her as Commander Lyme, who is the commander in District 2.
A casting call in Berlin recently revealed they are looking for approximately 1,000 background actors for The Hunger Games shooting in Berlin.
For Lionsgate, filming in Europe at such locations is considered a step up to the next level. Producer Jon Kilik cited their decision to shoot The Hunger Games: Catching Fire partially in Hawaii added to the film’s spectacle, “Those locations are extra-special, and it’s a real reach financially for them.”
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire recently bowed out of the box office, becoming the #10 grossing movie of all-time with $865 million worldwide.
The third film in the franchise, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 will be released on November 21, 2014.
