The Hunger Games

Hi, everybody. As you probably know, The Hunger Games, a bestselling trilogy by Susanne Collins, has finally gotten a movie. It will be released March 23rd, 2012, so that leaves plenty of time until it's released to spectulate and comment on it.

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Here is the cast so far:

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen (District 12)

Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark (District 12)

Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne

Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy

Willow Shields as Primrose Everdeen

Paula Malcomson as Mrs. Everdeen

Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket

Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane

Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman

Amandla Stenberg as Rue (District 11)

Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh (District 11)

Alexander Ludwig as Cato (District 2)

Isabelle Fuhrman as Clove (District 2)

Jack Quaid as Marvel (District 1)

Leven Rambin as Glimmer (District 1)

Jacqueline Emerson as Foxface (District 5)

Ian Nelson as Tribute Boy (District 3)

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The Plot:

In the remains of North America lies the country of Panem, where there are 12 districts that must choose one girl and one boy between the ages of 12 to 18 to compete in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death in an arena on live television as punishment for the 'Dark Days' when the 12 districts rebelled together against the country's government, the Capitol. When 16 year old Katniss Everdeen volunteers to takes her sister Prim's place in the Games, she will leave behind her family and her friend Gale Hawthorne, meet her fellow tribute Peeta Mellark, and be pitted against other tributes from fellow districts who have trained for this their whole life. Katniss must try her hardest to do the unthinkable—win the Hunger Games.

edited 19th May '11 4:10:34 PM by Abracadavre

That's not an official poster. It uses the credits of Dylan Dog: Dead of Night.

Anyway, I can't see this doing well. Lionsgate is having financial troubles at the moment and their last attempt at a high-budgeted self-financed project (Killers) was a money loser. Also, every attempt at "the next Twilight" has fared poorly and/or failed to get a sequel.

At last, having Alexander Ludwig in the cast is a recipe for disaster. His terrible acting was part of the reasons for The Seeker and Race To Witch Mountain turning out the way they did.

edited 19th May '11 3:47:04 PM by Buscemi

I'm not saying it's gonna be the best movie in the world, but I honestly think they have a shot with Susanne Collins as one of the writers. They did good casting for Clove, as well (Isabelle is a pretty good actor, in my opinion). I'm kind of skeptical of the choice for Peeta, but I'm not gonna pan it until I see it for certain.

I can't defend Alex Ludwig because I've never seen any of the movies he's in, so I'll take your word for it. I just hope they don't go overboard with the romance. I'm fine with two or three kissing scenes, but Katniss and Peeta kissing every five seconds? No, just...no.

edited 19th May '11 4:07:36 PM by Abracadavre

"The next Twilight"? I'm sorry, but the Hunger Games Trilogy is way damn better than Twilight!

Hahano.

Susanne Collins is way better than The Hunger Games, and I personally find it apalling that it should be such a mediocre book series that really puts her on the map.

The only reason why it's getting so heavily hyped is because Lionsgate sees it as the next Twilight and people are eating up the hype. Similar to how The Chronicles of Narnia was seen as the next Harry Potter (which worked well in the beginning but fizzled out due to Walden Media waiting too long to do a sequel).

But...The Hunger Games has practically nothing in common with Twilight!!!

...I'm pretty sure Katniss would beat Bella up, were they ever to come in contact. The only point of comparison is the triangles, and even there...yeah, Katniss has reasons for her indecision, and much better ones.

Even better, Katniss isn't a whiny, depressed, manipulative bitch like Bella.

Katniss: 1

Bella: 0

People compare The Hunger Games with Twilight because they're both Young Adult books that made it to the top.

At least they didn't Race Lift Rue, despite rumors of the contrary. That's a plus.

So, what do you think of the actress playing Katniss?

She was good in Winter's Bone but I worry about overexposure (she's everywhere this year).

I don't know, I've never seen her act, so I'm not sure. But I'm willing to give her a shot as long as she dosen't fuck it up make Katniss a Bella Expy.

Considering it's been said that the script is written by Collins herself, I don't think there will be too much deviation off the path of the book, though how the characters are portrayed could still affect it overall.

"Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen (District 12)".

Yes. YES! The moment I watched Winter's Bone, I thought, "This girl would be an AWESOME Katniss (though the similarities in the stories - bleak economically depressed location with teenage girl having to raise and take care of the family - may have played into that). Excellent choice.

Oh, and looked at the IMDB page, and the casting for Rue is perfect too.

I think it's got a strong chance of being good - it's got the advantage of good source material, unlike Twilight, and having the author working on it is a great move. The only real concern is the gap between the graphicness of the violence in the book (what's described in it could easily give a movie an R rating) and the fact that the moviemakers may be going for a PG rating to make sure preteen fans of the book see it. I don't think they'll have to amp up the romance much beyond what exists in the book.

Hope they hired good costume designers, because I cannot WAIT to see Cinna's outfits!

Gary Ross usually does PG-13-safe material (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) but Lionsgate is usually been known for doing R rated movies (their two highest grossing films, Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Expendables, carried R ratings), so it's a toss-up.

I imagine it will be a PG-13 that pushes slightly towards R-rated material.

Yeah, PG-13's good. My main concerns are the scenes with Katniss's...uh, "makeover" (Read "Katniss pretty much naked"), and Marvel's death scene. The former is a problem, but for the latter they could just use a Gory Discretion Shot, and it would probably be fine.

edited 29th May '11 6:04:20 AM by Abracadavre

I was more worried about the bit with the tracker jackers and people swelling up like crazy and hallucinations. And Peeta's leg being all gross and infected. And the mutts. Wasn't even thinking about the makeover scene (that's not a vital part of the movie, though; they could just show them waxing her legs and doing her makeup).

I think they've explicitly stated that they're aiming for a PG-13 rating for the movie, and I don't think that it would be too hard to get. The movie's going to do well, just because the book has such a huge following. Whether it will actually be good or not...that waits to be seen.

I'm interested in the movie too, though I wanted Hailee Steinfeld (or whatever her name is, the girl from True Grit) for Katniss. I am really hoping they don't screw this up and tone everything down (or the opposite, make everything more violent than it needs to be.)

I hope they manage to pull it off. Still, I can't seem to see Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. I always thought Katniss would look a little tougher... Ah, well, that's what makeup's for.

What I'm expecting from the movie:

1. Nightmare Fuel (Accidental or otherwise.)

2. Mild Uncanny Valley (The faces of the mutts, anyone?)

3. Disney Acid Sequence (The Tracker Jackers hallucinations.)

4. Body Horror (You all know why.)

And 5. A Tearjerker (Rue's death scene.)

That's basically it.

edited 8th Jun '11 12:41:54 PM by Abracadavre

Personally, I am ready to see The Games take place in glourious live action. Really, what i'm waiting on is Catching Fire. It was definitely my favorite book in the series. However, this movie is something that I'm definitely worrisome about. I hope that it doesn't flop.

I wouldn't be surprised if the film turned out to be an in-name-only adaptation. Lionsgate is creating all this hype that it's the next Twilight and all the early news reports that I've seen give the hint that it is like Twilight.

Also, the studio will want pre-teens to watch it so that means they will end up removing everything that could come close to R-rated.

In short, we could have another Dark Is Rising case.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the film turned out to be an in-name-only adaptation."

It won't even be in-name-only. The film adaptation is called "Artemis." I'm not a nazi about changes being made to movies from books, personally, but I wouldn't be too pleased to see every death be censored by a cutaway shot, seeing as how the whole point of the book is the senseless carnage the Capitol forces upon its workers.