The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is currently under production with a release date set for the end of 2013, but in the meantime The Hunger Games production company Lionsgate have announced that director Francis Lawrence will stay on to finish the rest of the series. After the success of the first Hunger Games film, the director Gary Ross left the project, stating that Lionsgate had set too much pressure on the pace of the sequel.

The Hunger Games, starring Jennifer Lawrence, chronicled protagonist Katniss’ unexpected victory in the Battle Royale-esque dystopian country of Panem. Catching Fire follows Katniss as, much like Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III, she keeps getting pulled back in.

The third book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, has been split up into two separate parts, which seems to be the vogue now that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has set a precedent for it. Francis Lawrence is best known for I Am Legend, which was actually fairly watchable despite it having approximately nothing to do with the book it was based on. Hopefully Francis Lawrence won’t make the same mistake in The Hunger Games sequels, lest the hordes of starving Hunger Games fans maul him in the street.

He also looks remarkably like Bradley Cooper if he were a crack addict.

Excited for the Hunger Games sequels? Was 2 years enough time to produce a worthy sequel? Gary Ross certainly didn’t seem to think so!