Apparently Lionsgate is putting all of their eggs into the basket, adorned with copies of The Hunger Games.

With the first film in the beloved franchise still looking to hit theaters, the wheels are turning for a sequel, an adaptation of the second novel, Catching Fire. Director Gary Ross is busy still working on the first film, so with him set to direct its sequel, a writer is being eyed, and Deadline is reporting that it may in fact be Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy.

The adaptation of the first film in Suzanne Collins’ bestselling Hunger Games trilogy is still in production, which we previously announced here and won’t be released until March of next year, but Lionsgate is already making plans for the next book in the series, Catching Fire, and even has a locked-in release date: November 22, 2013. No further information on the film sequel was released.

I wasn’t familiar with the Hunger Games series until production on the first film was announced, but the basic plot line of the original sounds like a teen-targeted retread of movies like The Running Man, Death Race 2000, The Condemned, and of course Battle Royale (an American remake of which has been talked about for years).