Nina Jacobson Talks about the movie
Collider bring us an interview with Nina Jacobson(Producer, where she talked about what originally led her to THG, the importance of choosing Gary Ross as director, the challenges of bringing THG to the big screen, and how it would feel like a failure, as a producer, if she didn’t get all three books ultimately made into films.
What led you to The Hunger Games and bringing it to the big screen?
NINA JACOBSON: There is a young fella who works for me, named Brian Unkeless, who’s very smart. We’re a very small company that has been Brian and me and two assistants, although we’re growing a little bit now. He read the book and loved it, and told me I should read it. He had been a fan of the Gregor books. So, I read it and couldn’t put it down and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I really became obsessed with the thought of producing it, and was completely bothered by the idea that anybody but me could produce it. I felt that there were so many things that could go wrong, in adapting it, and I had this fierce desire to protect this book that she had written. At that time, I read the second book, in manuscript form, and so I saw where she was going with the series. I was able to convince Suzanne to trust me with the books.
Being a huge fan of the book, did you have any input into the design of the film?
JACOBSON: Yes and no. Ultimately, I am very filmmaker oriented, as a producer. I think the most important thing is that you have to really choose the players carefully. It was very important to me to choose a director like Gary , whose instincts come from character, who’s a storyteller, and who puts characters first. Visually, I felt that with each movie, Gary adopts a different style. He doesn’t have one look that’s the Gary Ross look, and I thought that was important. We needed somebody who would be character based and who would find the look of the movie. Also, the hiring of Phil Messina, the production designer, was a big decision. He’s so gifted, and his ideas were always so smart and rooted in American history and architecture. Nothing feels like it’s not us, or couldn’t be us, and I think that’s very important. But, in the evolution of the movie, Gary and I talked a lot about tonal bandwidth and making sure that the look and feel and style and choices of the movie stayed within a certain consistent bandwidth.
Complete interview and source: Collider
What led you to The Hunger Games and bringing it to the big screen?
NINA JACOBSON: There is a young fella who works for me, named Brian Unkeless, who’s very smart. We’re a very small company that has been Brian and me and two assistants, although we’re growing a little bit now. He read the book and loved it, and told me I should read it. He had been a fan of the Gregor books. So, I read it and couldn’t put it down and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I really became obsessed with the thought of producing it, and was completely bothered by the idea that anybody but me could produce it. I felt that there were so many things that could go wrong, in adapting it, and I had this fierce desire to protect this book that she had written. At that time, I read the second book, in manuscript form, and so I saw where she was going with the series. I was able to convince Suzanne to trust me with the books.
Being a huge fan of the book, did you have any input into the design of the film?
JACOBSON: Yes and no. Ultimately, I am very filmmaker oriented, as a producer. I think the most important thing is that you have to really choose the players carefully. It was very important to me to choose a director like Gary , whose instincts come from character, who’s a storyteller, and who puts characters first. Visually, I felt that with each movie, Gary adopts a different style. He doesn’t have one look that’s the Gary Ross look, and I thought that was important. We needed somebody who would be character based and who would find the look of the movie. Also, the hiring of Phil Messina, the production designer, was a big decision. He’s so gifted, and his ideas were always so smart and rooted in American history and architecture. Nothing feels like it’s not us, or couldn’t be us, and I think that’s very important. But, in the evolution of the movie, Gary and I talked a lot about tonal bandwidth and making sure that the look and feel and style and choices of the movie stayed within a certain consistent bandwidth.
Complete interview and source: Collider