Hollywood
Lionsgate inks 30+ licensee partners for ‘The Hunger Games’ franchise
MUMBAI: Lionsgate is celebrating the final chapter of its blockbuster The Hunger Games film franchise with the introduction of a new collection of themed products inspired by the franchise, including offerings specific to the upcoming final installment, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, which premieres in theaters on 20 November, 2015.
The merchandising program, the largest of its kind handled by Lionsgate’s internal consumer products team, includes a comprehensive, cross-category product lineup that ranges from apparel, accessories and jewelry, to the iconic Mockingjay pins from each of the films, to trend and collectible products.
The themed products are being licensed in partnership with numerous partners, including global toymaker Mattel; design and merchandising company of apparel and accessories, Bioworld Merchandising; pop-culture collectible maker Funko; monthly geek and gaming gear subscription service Loot Crate; worldwide costume and costume accessories licensee Rubie’s Costume Company; and wall art, stationary and accessories manufacturer Pyramid International.
The World of The Hunger Games collection delivers the most iconic moments from the past three films, including The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. With the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, an entirely new collection of products were developed using creative elements that focus on the climatic events from the final film.
“The release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 allows us to celebrate the entire film franchise with Hunger Games fans worldwide. Our partners from around the world have created an amazing assortment of products that deliver the heart and emotion of The Hunger Games franchise,” said Lionsgate SVP franchise management, domestic consumer products Randy Shoemaker and Lionsgate SVP franchise management, international consumer products Sheila Clarke.
The World of The Hunger Games products will be available at retailers and specialty stores worldwide.
Hollywood
Utopai Studios partners Huace to deploy PAI for long form content
Deal includes revenue sharing as Huace adopts AI engine across global ops
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… algorithm, the script just got a silicon co-writer. In a move that signals how storytelling itself is being re-engineered, U.S.-based Utopai Studios has partnered China’s Huace Film & TV Co. Ltd. to bring artificial general intelligence into the heart of long-form content creation.
At the centre of the deal is PAI, Utopai’s cinematic storytelling system, which Huace will deploy as a core engine across its production pipeline from development and creative iteration to global localisation. The partnership includes a large-scale annual usage commitment from Huace, alongside a usage-based revenue-sharing model, underscoring both ambition and commercial confidence on both sides.
For Huace, one of China’s largest film and television companies, the bet is not on automation alone but on scale with control. With distribution spanning over 200 countries and a presence across more than 20 international platforms, including Netflix and YouTube, the company brings a vast content ecosystem where even marginal efficiency gains can translate into significant output shifts. Its extensive TV IP library further positions it as fertile ground for AI-assisted storytelling workflows.
The choice of PAI follows what Huace described as a rigorous evaluation of existing AI tools, many of which remain limited to fragmented use cases such as video generation or editing. What tipped the scales, according to the company, was PAI’s ability to handle long-form narrative complexity maintaining continuity, structure, and creative coherence across entire story arcs rather than isolated clips.
Utopai, for its part, is using the partnership to anchor its international expansion strategy, pitching PAI as an enterprise-ready system built for customisation, privacy, and regulatory adaptability across markets. That positioning becomes particularly relevant as global media companies increasingly scrutinise how AI integrates into proprietary workflows.
The timing is notable. Earlier this month, Utopai upgraded PAI to support three-minute 4K video generation and advanced multi-shot sequencing features designed to tackle one of AI storytelling’s biggest hurdles: consistency across scenes.
What emerges is not just another tech collaboration, but a glimpse into how the grammar of filmmaking could evolve. Because if stories were once crafted frame by frame, the next chapter might just be coded scene by scene.
