Hollywood's 25 Most Powerful Authors

The idea for The Hunger Games was born during a bout of late-night channel surfing. “If you take the elements of the two types of programs I was watching — reality TV and war coverage — what you come up with is a gladiator game,” Collins has said. And now even fellow YA powerhouse Stephenie Meyer declares herself “obsessed” with Collins’ trilogy, saying, “I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t loved that book.” The 50-year-old Collins, who co-wrote the Games screenplay and served as an executive producer on the film, has spent years writing for TV with such kids programming as Scholastic Entertainment’s Clifford’s Puppy Days and Nickelodeon’s Clarissa Explains It All. “It was ingrained into her style,” says her film agent, Jason Dravis. “When she moved into books, I think she was really able to write in a visual medium, and it flowed into three-act structures.” The first Games sequel, Catching Fire, directed by I Am Legend’s Francis Lawrence, will be out at the end of 2013.