Francis Lawrence avoided violence

Francis Lawrence didn't want to enter the "graphic and gory" territory in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

The director helms the latest installment of the fantasy franchise, which is out in cinemas now.

Based on the same-titled books the story follows an annual event in which children are selected by a lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death.

When shooting the movie Francis was aware younger viewers would be watching and focused on the more poignant points of the tale rather than violence.

"I think the trick in dealing with that kind of material - it's always a little risqué right - is the area of intensity is always a bit of a grey zone in terms of rating. So I'm not interested in graphic violence, gore or anything like that," he explained to shortlist.com.

"It's really about the emotional consequence of it that's important to me and that can still be tricky rating wise... All I can do is kind of make it as intense and as emotionally impactful as possible without getting into the graphic and gory territory. You cross your fingers that it's gonna work, but it's all just about telling the story in the most important way."

Francis took over directorial duties from Gary Ross, who worked on the first film in the series.

Despite fans' anticipation over the finished piece Francis didn't feel any pressure to deliver.

"Um no not really I wasn't [nervous]. You know, I just loved the book - I love Catching Fire. I thought it had great potential, I thought it was very visual and cinematic and I felt there was a lot for me to sink my teeth into," he added. "There's such an amazing fan base and everybody was really supportive and it's a great cast and it sort of had all the right elements. So yeah I wasn't really nervous at all."