The hotly-antcipated The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 arrives in theaters in a month, with Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence back in the role of Katniss Everdeen. Similar to how the second-to-last Harry Potter installment, Deathly Hallows: Part 1, builds up to the grand finale in Part 2, it appears that Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence’s first Mockingjay film will be about the lead-in to full-scale war between the Capitol and the organized rebellion of Panem’s surrounding districts (as will then be depicted in 2015 with Mockingjay – Part 2).

Katniss, meanwhile, is forced to reconcile her political role – serving as the symbol for the Panem resistance – with her personal desire to keep those that she loves alive and well, throughout the larger conflict. That becomes all the more difficult when Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) re-emerges as a mouthpiece for the Capitol; as the above TV spot details, though, not everyone close to Katniss is concerned about Peeta’s safety, after he publicly denounces the rebellion against the Capitol (for reasons unknown to those who haven’t read Suzanne Collins’ source material).

Mockingjay – Part 1, judging by the trailer footage, will fall close to a political drama with elements of a war epic, whereas the opposite may hold true for Mockingjay – Part 2. On the one hand, that setup has the potential to fill out an entire film’s running time in a satisfactory fashion (as Lawrence has suggested it will); then again, so far the trend of splitting individual books into multiple films hasn’t generally proven to be so beneficial, from a storytelling perspective. It really comes down to what screenwriters Danny Strong (The Butler) and Peter Craig (The Town) have managed to make out of Collins’ original novel.

In other Mockingjay – Part 1 news, the film’s soundtrack is now available for pre-orders on iTunes, ahead of its release next month on November 17th. The teenage New Zealand musician/singer Lorde curated all fourteen tracks for the movie’s album, which includes work by such artists as Stromae, Pusha T, Q-Tip, Haim, CHVRCHES, and Kanye West (reworking Lord’s hit single “Yellow Flicker Beat”). All but one of the fourteen tracks have been unveiled and listed, below.

1. Meltdown – Stromae ft. Lorde, Pusha T, Q-Tip & Haim

2. Dead Air – CHVRCHES

3. Scream My Name – Tove Lo

4. Kingdom – Charli XCX ft. Simon Le Bon

5. TBA

6. Lost Souls – Raury

7. Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde

8. The Leap – Tinashe

9. Plan The Escape (Son Lux Cover) – Bat For Lashes

10. Original Beast – Grace Jones

11. Flicker (Kanye West Rework) – Lorde

12. Animal – XOV

13. This Is Not A Game – The Chemical Brothers ft. Miguel

14. Ladder Song – Lorde

Lastly, in case you didn’t hear, Lionsgate/Summit is running a five-part Hunger Games web series called “District Voices” this week, as part of the larger marketing campaign for Mockingjay – Part 1. The videos include Youtube personalities (such as iJustine) playing citizens of Panem, with each clip focusing on a different aspect of everyday life in the Hunger Games universe. Much like the soundtrack choices, it’s reflective of a smart (and shrewd) strategy, to appeal to the franchise’s young adult target audience.

You can watch the first of the “District Voices” videos, below:

[YOUTUBEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap-oyOh8u7g][/YOUTUBE]

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 opens in U.S. theaters on November 21st, 2014.

http://screenrant.com/hunger-games-m...er-soundtrack/