Sometimes people forget the target audiences of feature films and the novels that inspired them. Suzanne Collins’ acclaimed and best selling trilogy of novels are marketed and sold toward the Young Adult demographic, but older fans have been clamoring for an R-rated adaptation. However, that all changed today when director Gary Ross made it abundantly clear that Hunger Games would not forget the children that have fueled the series. Hit the jump for the full quotes and why this is a win for fans of the books.
Ross talked with Entertainment Weekly about the rating and made it clear the film would be PG-13:
It’s not going to be an R-rated movie because I want the 12- and 13- and 14-year-old-fans to be able to go see it. This book means too much to too many teenagers for it not to be PG-13. It’s their story and they deserve to be able to access it completely.
Ross clearly understands that the core audience of the film are teenagers and won’t create a violent film that forgets that.
Of course, the reason so many people have likely rooted for an R-rating is because adults have devoured the books just as much as the younger audiences it was aimed at. Then again, the film does deal with difficult material. Ross said that Suzanne hasn’t “written in any way an overly graphic book. Even things like the Tracker Jacker sequence, while horrific, it’s the ideas that Suzanne has created that are so harrowing.”
For more on the film and how producer Nina Jacobson reacts to the Twilight comparison, check out the full EW article. What do you think? Are Suzanne Collins’ books ripe for an R-rating or does a PG-13 film fit as well? Let us know in the comments below.
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I don’t think you can capture The Hunger Games with a PG-13 rating, and i understand that there is a young audience but i think even they realise at this point that numerous scenes throughout the series cannot possibly be connected to the PG-13 rating while remaining faithful to the book, and in that sense, The Hunger Games movie could be a complete failure and a joke.
Be honest. Was THE DARK KNIGHT dark enough for you? Rough enough? Violent enough? That film was PG-13…
yeah – Dark Night, X-Men, Bourne… all PG-13 and all easily as violent as these books.
I must have missed the part in The Dark Knight where they forced children to murder each other.
Hannah, you’re saying the audience that made the books a success shouldn’t be allowed to see the movie.
Avatar was PG-13 just like the hunger games:)
I liked this story better when it came out ten years ago and was called Battle Royale
I’m okay with it being PG-13. Actually, PG-13s seem to be incredibly violent these days. I’m sure the directors will do a good job of incorporating the violent scenes while not showing anything too gruesome. Now let’s just hope that have a decent cast… can’t wait!
No way. If it’s PG-13, it wont be at all the same as the book, and will wreck the action scenes. I’m not saying it should be rated R, but atleast an M.
M? Since when is M a motion picture rating?
Well, the books do deal with children murdering each other for survival, and while they aren’t overly graphic, they are that way because of the careful language Collins used–and some are still very creepy. One couldn’t possibly expect a faithful transation to screen of those same scenes without the gore and the bloodbath. But then again, most book-to-film adaptations take liberties, and there’s no reason for The Hunger Games to be an exception. After all, the books are YA and, as such, the movies should be rated PG-13. As long as it’s just specific scenes and not the overall themes of the novel that get toned down, the first film should do just fine under capable hands. Really, the next books, especially the last one, could be a lot more troublesome to adapt.
could work. I read about True Grit, that was a pg-13 but there was somethings that werent for pg-13.
If you ask me (not that anybody ever does), the very concept of a film where kids kill other kids seems to warrant an R rating by itself. Only big studio fueled movies like this can get a PG-13 with that kind of content. This is the same case as Titanic getting away with a full-frontal nudity scene AND a PG-13. Some indie with the same content would’ve been slapped with an R without a second thought.
cant they compromise with an M rated movie? Ross says she hasn’t “written an overly graphic book” …. what about hundreds of people bleeding from their ears, eyes noses etc? people with flesh melting off their bones Boggs when he gets his legs blown off? come on if the teenage audience read the books and supported them don’t they want the movie to be faithful to the book? not a watered down version for teenyboppers?
The spirt of the book is gruesome and horrific….the writing itself is PG-13…but to really capture the horror that made the book so unforgetable you have to go there visually…I mean maybe they can push the PG-13 envelope…
And yes many tweens made the book popular, but please do not be mislead and believe that the audience does not include a legion…LEGION of adult fans. I am 28 and read each book at least 3 times since first reading them this past October. I was turned onto them by my ADULT peers on a very adult paranormal romance messageboard…so while I want the teeny boppers to see it, I don’t want it ruined by fake toned down violence. We have to SEE how these children were forced into their despair…that is where you get the quiet horror spirit of the book and that is what the fans love about the series.
I don’t think the hunger games is nothing innapropiate ,seriously
I am 11 years old and LOVE the book could read it when I was 8 and make no harm….It makes me sad and angry at the same time the hunger games is rated pg 13 cause Ill be embarrassed to go in with my parents who might think its innapropiate and not enjoy the movie (with I hate since I loved it) and I don’t mind seeing killing scenes I’ve seen stuff like narnia and pirates of the caribean and harry potter violence I don’t mind about that …Im disappointed