Elle Fanning in talks to play young Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

Elle Fanning, best known for playing Princess Aurora in the Maleficent films, is being eyed to play a young Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which is based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel. In the original Hunger Games, Effie plays an escort to the competitors from District 12. She also acts as an advisor to Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) while she accompanies them to the Capitol. If reports are true, the film might explore Fanning's life as Effie before she became an escort, and possibly her personal life and relationship with sister Proserpina.

The book is a prequel to the original trilogy, taking place 40 years after the events of the most recent tale, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the film adaptation of which released in 2023 and 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games during the Second Quarter Quell. It will centre on Haymitch Abernathy, portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the original Hunger Games movies and how he competes in the games.

Francis Lawrence, who has helmed every Hunger Games installment since 2012’s Catching Fire, is directing this upcoming film which is expected to start shooting in July this year. Billy Ray, who has co-written the original trilogy, is writing the screenplay for the film.

Sunrise on the Reaping, which was published by Collins in March, is being bankrolled by Color Force’s Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. Cameron MacConomy is the executive producer.

Fanning, who was last seen in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, opposite Timothée Chalamet, is awaiting the release of Predator: Badlands, the seventh film in the series, directed by Dan Trachtenberg. The film is slated to hit theatres on November 7.