Hunger Games director reveals how Philip Seymour Hoffman’s scenes will be finished

WITH two more instalments of the Hunger Games franchise left, the director has revealed how they plan to get around the death of star Philip Seymour Hoffman.

President Snow (Donald Sutherland) with Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in a scene from film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

THE Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 director Francis Lawrence has addressed how exactly Philip Seymour Hoffman will appear in the next instalment of the film series.

Hoffman, who died in February, played Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and had filmed many of his scenes for Mockingjay before his death.

The Hunger Games Exclusive posted a conversation with Lawrence, producer Nina Jacobson and screenwriter Peter Craig: “We finished the majority of his work,” said Lawrence. “I think he might have had eight to 10 days left on our schedule. In most of those scenes, Phil didn’t have any dialogue. We are going to put him into those scenes, but we’re only using real footage. We’re not creating anything digital or a robotic version of him.”

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Woody Harrelson in a scene from film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Jacobson also noted that they might give a line here or there to a different character like Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) or Effie (Elizabeth Banks), “but only in circumstances that we are able to do that without undermining the intent of the scene,” she said.

Earlier this year, Lionsgate, the production company behind the films, said that Hoffman would be recreated for scenes using CGI effects. At the time of his death, The Hollywood Reporter learned that he had not yet filmed one major scene, though it’s unclear how that scene will be produced.

Mockingjay: Part 1 hits screens later this year. Lionsgate just released the first photo of Hoffman with Julianne Moore as President Coin:

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore in a scene from the next Hunger Games film.

This story is republished with permission from The Huffington Post.