Hunger Games: Catching Fire Soundtrack Features New Coldplay Tune, "Atlas"; Trailer Heats Up the Web

British hitmakers are getting into the games with their first song written specifically for the big-screen.

By Josh Grossberg Aug 09, 2013 8:33 PMTags
Hunger Games, Catching Fire, ColdplayYouTube/John Shearer/Getty Images

We can totally imagine Katniss and Peeta listening to Coldplay, can't you?

Well, the star-crossed lovers can take heart: The English band is contributing a new song, "Atlas," to the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which will drop on Aug. 26, three months before the Jennifer Lawrence-headlined blockbuster hits theaters.

According to Billboard, the tune marks not only the first new Coldplay music since their 2011 album Mylo Xyloto, but the first occasion Chris Martin and company's have written a tune specifically for a feature film.

Given that the series' first installment, 2012's The Hunger Games, grossed a whopping $700 million worldwide and spawned a Grammy-winning soundtrack that topped the Billboard album charts, it would seem Coldplay chose wisely.

And the timing for the rockers' announcement couldn't be better as the latest trailer for Catching Fire is now in the wild.

The teaser picks up where the inaugural movie left off—with Lawrence's heroic Katniss Everdeen having won the 74th Annual Hunger Games with Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), her fellow District 12 male tribute whom she pretended to be in love with in order to maintain the viewers' sympathy. Of course, by refusing to kill Peeta, she defied the rules and both were declared the victors by President Snow (Donald Sutherland) to avoid a most embarrassing situation.

Now, Katniss talks with younger sis, Primrose, who tells her that in her act of defiance, for the first time she sees hope that eventually the oppressed in each district they live in can overcome the tyranny of the Capitol.

Snow engages the new Head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) about eliminating the Girl on Fire, who has become a mortal threat to the totalitarian system he lords over.

Despite their victory, they're pressed to compete in what's known as the Quarter Quell for the 75th Hunger Games, an event that happens every 25 years that brings together 24 victors from the previous years in games to the death set in a jungle with a saltwater lake.

But with Snow and others plotting against her and Peeta, Katniss is in more danger than ever before, giving new meaning to the phrase survival of the fittest.

Good thing she's got her signature bow and arrow for protection.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is scheduled for release on Nov. 22.