Lionsgate is bringing back the creative team from the last two Hunger Games movies to tackle Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2) has signed on to direct, with Peter Craig (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2) set to write the screenplay. Nina Jacobson, who has shepherded the entire Hunger Games franchise through her Color Force company, has signed on to produce.

The studio is putting this project on the fast track, aiming to start production early next year, following the November 20 release of the franchise finale, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. The project came together after Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erik Feig pitched the idea to Francis Lawrence while they were working on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 in Paris. Erik Feig will oversee the project with production vice president Jim Miller and development director James Myers.

Homer's The Odyssey, which is, in part, a sequel to his other famous poem, The Illiad, follows the mighty Greek warrior Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman mythology), who journeys back home to Ithica following the Trojan War. It takes him 10 long years to return home, where his wife Penelope and their son Telemachus must fight off a group of unruly suitors. The poem has been adapted numerous times for both film and television, although many times they have not been direct adaptations. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Tim Burton's Big Fish were loosely inspired by The Odyssey, and Kirk Douglas starred in the 1954 adaptation Ulysses.