90 replies to this topic

[Overstreet]

/film:

Quote

The series many feel could take over the movie and publishing business in the way Twilight did just a few years back finally has a captain at the helm. Gary Ross, who directed Seabiscuit and Pleasantville, will in fact be directing the film version of The Hunger Games based on the best selling book by Suzanne Collins for Lionsgate. Ross was “in talks” a few months back, and while the ink has yet to officially dry, the director showed up at the American Film Market this week to build buzz for the project. Not that it needs it. The best selling trilogy of novels, which are about a futuristic society where kids must kill each other on TV (sort of a romance infused Running Man/Battle Royale hybrid for teens) have been gaining exponential popularity in the last few months. We’ve got more after the jump.

Hmm. Gary Ross is about as inspiring a choice for this as Chris Columbus was for Harry Potter. In other words, not.

I would like to have seen Del Toro on this.

Edited by Overstreet, 04 November 2010 - 05:20 PM.

[Tyler]

Del Toro would've been good.

After seeing Winter's Bone, though, I was hoping for Debra Granik. (The setting of District 12--where the Hunger Games heroine lives--is similar to the Ozarks in some ways.)

Edited by Tyler, 04 November 2010 - 07:12 PM.

[Overstreet]

Oh, yeah. That could have been great.

[Tyler]

$60 million budget?

[Tyler]

Casting rumors.

Hunter Parrish (for Peeta) and Alex Pettyfer (no role listed, though Gale makes sense).

For Katniss? Jennifer Lawrence, Hailee Steinfeld, Saoirse Ronan, Abigail Breslin.

Of those possibilities, Steinfeld would be my choice.

[old wave]

Of those four, Ronan probably looks the most similar to how I imagined Katniss when I read (listened to, actually) the books. But Steinfeld has the attitude.

[Tyler]

old wave, on 16 March 2011 - 11:50 PM, said:

Of those four, Ronan probably looks the most similar to how I imagined Katniss when I read (listened to, actually) the books. But Steinfeld has the attitude.

I still see Ronan as Briony from Atonement, which would be too young for Katniss, but that role was several years ago. She's playing a kind of backwoods assassin in Hanna, too, so I suppose she would work from that angle, as well.

[Tyler]

And, Jennifer Lawrence will play Katniss.

She played a character that's similar in a lot of ways in Winter's Bone, but I think she might be too old for this part.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Tyler wrote:
: For Katniss? Jennifer Lawrence, Hailee Steinfeld, Saoirse Ronan, Abigail Breslin.

FWIW, The Wrap reported last night that Lawrence does, in fact, have the role.

Wow, Tyler beat me by just a few seconds.

[Tyler]

Peter T Chattaway, on 17 March 2011 - 10:08 AM, said:

Tyler wrote:
: For Katniss? Jennifer Lawrence, Hailee Steinfeld, Saoirse Ronan, Abigail Breslin.

FWIW, The Wrap reported last night that Lawrence does, in fact, have the role.

Wow, Tyler beat me by just a few seconds.

I do feel special. Breaking movie news before Chattaway is as hard as beating Hurst to a music thread.

[Peter T Chattaway]

So, The Wrap posted their "exclusive" report that Jennifer Lawrence had been cast in this film on March 16, 2011 @ 10:41 pm. Then MTV Movies Blog posted its own "exclusive" on this subject about ten hours ago, on March 17 circa 2:00 pm. Oy vey.

[Tyler]

More casting:

Josh Hutcherson is Peeta, and Liam Hemsworth is Gale.

I like Hutcherson for Peeta, but I haven't seen enough of Hemsworth to have an opinion about him.

[Tyler]

Meet the cast.

9 of them, at least. I'm curious who they'll get for Haymitch.

[Tyler]

Elizabeth Banks will play Effie Trinket.

[Tyler]

Wes Bentley is Seneca Crane.

Crane isn't in the first book all that much, that I remember, but his character is pretty important to the trilogy as a whole.

[Scott Derrickson]

It's really too bad that this book became so beloved by TWILIGHT-age girls. It's a much better book than TWILIGHT. I was sent this to possibly adapt awhile back, and by the time I read it and met on it, the young-girl hysteria was starting to set in. I thought the innovation of the game was fantastic, and that the love triangle of the book was peripheral -- but they clearly wanted to bend it toward TWILIGHT, so I didn't even bother. The best version of this movie is certainly emotional, but it's more of about the political context, and the danger and thrill of the game than "which boy is she going to end up with".

[Tyler]

Story.

[Andrew]

Scott Derrickson, on 07 May 2011 - 10:23 AM, said:

It's really too bad that this book became so beloved by TWILIGHT-age girls. It's a much better book than TWILIGHT. I was sent this to possibly adapt awhile back, and by the time I read it and met on it, the young-girl hysteria was starting to set in. I thought the innovation of the game was fantastic, and that the love triangle of the book was peripheral -- but they clearly wanted to bend it toward TWILIGHT, so I didn't even bother. The best version of this movie is certainly emotional, but it's more of about the political context, and the danger and thrill of the game than "which boy is she going to end up with".

When I read the trilogy over the summer, I was struck by how savvy Collins was in her comprehension and conveyance of the effects of trauma on the sufferer's psyche and relationships, mostly via the character of Katniss of course but certainly through the secondary characters. In reading a recent (and apparently rare) interview with Collins in the Sunday NY Times, I was gratified to read that this was definitely a key part of the author's intent in writing the books, partly coming from her experience of growing up with a Nam vet father.

(OTOH, I thought the series lost most of its narrative momentum by the latter half of book 3, and for me anyway, the moral queasiness and ick factor of reading about teens killing other teens ended up outweighing the series' merits, but anywho...)

[Scholar's Parrot]

Andrew, on 18 May 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

the moral queasiness and ick factor of reading about teens killing other teens ended up outweighing the series' merits, but anywho...)

While I enjoyed the series, this has been my one issue with the story. Whenever anyone asks me of they're worth reading, this is my one warning. She loses sight of the true villain, the government, and settles to turn fellow children who are in the same situation as Katniss, into the villains. The "career" tributes that are so hated are still victims of the government.

[Tyler]

Scholar, on 18 May 2011 - 09:22 PM, said:

Andrew, on 18 May 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

the moral queasiness and ick factor of reading about teens killing other teens ended up outweighing the series' merits, but anywho...)

While I enjoyed the series, this has been my one issue with the story. Whenever anyone asks me of they're worth reading, this is my one warning. She loses sight of the true villain, the government, and settles to turn fellow children who are in the same situation as Katniss, into the villains. The "career" tributes that are so hated are still victims of the government.

Have you read Mockingjay? I had a similar reaction as you did to the first two books, but the third one expands the scope and refocuses on the real evil in the Panem world.