Interview Bits about Mockingjay

Why is Mockingjay being split into two parts, if you know?
Francis Lawrence: "The decision to split the book into two parts was made before I signed on to do the films, but I liked the idea. Whenever one adapts a 400+ page novel down to a 2 hour-ish movie, there’s a lot of loss. By splitting this into two movies, more of the book can be maintained and more world growth can be added, so more surprises for the fans of the book." ++

On the psychological trauma
Francis Lawrence: "To me Catching Fire is the beginning of it, where you start to see that damage and it only gets worse. Obviously if you know Mockingjay, you know stuff is done to Peeta and so there’s a lot more exploration of that.". ++

On the book’s/movie’s ending (the epilogue!?)
Francis Lawrence: "The ending of the book and the book itself is just really important to me. I will just say that we’re making the book. But because we are splitting it into two there’s room for world growth. I don’t want to give anything away or anything, but we’re being very true to the book." ++

The third book, “Mockingjay,” is being divided into two movies that you are directing. How do you approach that story? Because I know quite a few people who don’t like that story as much as they like the story in the first two books.
Francis Lawrence: "Well, I think it’s all approach. I think, quite honestly, for me, the third book is the book that gives the stories their meaning — and that’s what I’m most excited about. To be able to take these stories to its finish, but also to be able to tell the story that sort of gives them all their kind of greater meaning, is really important to me. But, we all hear that kind of stuff, so I’m very mindful of it. And what I can try to do that we did with “Catching Fire” is make it as rich and emotional an experience as possible. So, if we can continue to keep the story in sort of Katniss’s point of view and keep you emotionally engaged with her and make the story as compelling as possible and give each of the characters that we present as emotional a story as possible, I think that we’ll really keep people engaged in the world of “The Hunger Games.”" ++

He’s also happy about the last book being expanded into two films. “I think they are two distinct stories. I think the objectives are very distinct. One is about getting Peeta back and one is about revenge, which is why I think they easily separate out. It allows us to explore what we need to explore within each of those stories instead of jamming them both into one.” - Francis Lawrence in SciFi Magazine (Dec 2013, page 45)

“[Peeta] is in less of Part One, obviously like the book, but there are appearances and then the final appearance is pretty striking.” - Francis Lawrence discussing Peeta inclusion in Mockingjay Part 1 due to his lack of physical presence in the books.