Following various big-batch announcements for those playing tributes and mentors in The Hunger Games prequel movie The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, we're back to people who deserve their own story. Oscar winner Viola Davis is certainly one of those, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, she'll play one of the wrong 'uns who helps design the deadly challenges.
Set decades before the existing set of movies, The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes follows 18-year-old future president Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol.
With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy’s race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird and a snake…
Davis is on to be Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the head gamemaker of the 10th annual Games.
Francis Lawrence is back directing the prequel, which also stars Hunter Schafer, Peter Dinklage and Jason Schwartzman.
"Dr. Gaul is as cruel as she is creative and as fearsome as she is formidable. Snow’s savvy as a political operator develops in no small part due to his experiences with her as the games’ most commanding figure," says Lawrence.
The film will be in cinemas on 17 November next year. Davis will be back on our screens in The Woman King, due on 4 October.