Posts Tagged ‘The Hunger Games’

The New York Times reports that filmmaker Francis Lawrence has come on board as the director for the next installment of The Hunger Games movie series, Catching Fire. Lawrence started off his Hollywood career directing music videos. He has since progressed on to movies including literary adaptations such as Constantine (2005) and Water for Elephants (2011).

Here’s more from the article: “Mr. Lawrence said in a statement that he ‘fell in love with the characters’ of Ms. Collins’s novels, as well as ‘the themes and the world she created,’ adding that ‘this chapter opens all of these elements up in such a thrilling, emotional and surprising way.’” MTV reports that star actors Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson feel sad that Gary Ross did not sign up to direct the sequel film. However, they both look forward to working with Lawrence.

Lawrence is not the only new addition to The Hunger Games movie crew. Simon Beaufoy, the Oscar-winning screenwriter who adapted Slumdog Millionaire (2008), penned the first draft of the script for Catching Fire. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate is negotiating with Michael Arndt, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind Little Miss Sunshine (2006), to polish Beaufoy’s draft.

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Promoting The Hunger Games adaptation, actors Jennifer Lawrence and  Josh Hutcherson (pictured) visited New York City’s Barnes & Noble Union Square.

Fans camped out 24-hours before the event, vying for special bracelets that allowed them to get autographs from the stars.

The Hunger Games movie has already sold more than one million pre-sale tickets. According to Deadline, the movie could bring in as much as $125 million at the box office during its opening weekend.

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Hunger Games trilogy author Suzanne Collins is the best-selling Kindle author of all time, according to Amazon.

Over at Salon, Laura Miller took an in-depth look at the series’ success: “With the right title, a kid’s publisher can deploy something the world of adult publishing can only dream about: a large, well-oiled and highly networked group of professional and semi-professional taste makers who can make that book a hit even before it’s published.”

In June 2011, Collins became the first children’s books author to sell more than one million Kindle books. For the last ten weeks, the Hunger Games trilogy has occupied the top three spots on the USA Today best-seller list. In addition, the trilogy currently holds the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list (children’s series category) after 81 weeks on the list.

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Lionsgate has released another clip from The Hunger Games film adaptation. The clip (embedded above) features Caesar Flickerman (played by Stanley Tucci) and Peeta Mellark (played by Josh Hutcherson).  Most of the original dialogue from the book made it to this scene.

In an interview with MTV, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence noted: “During filming, I really liked everything what I was seeing. I liked everything that Gary was doing. Then I saw it, and it was all there. It’s always hard for me watching because I think I am a horrible troll and I’ll never work again. Overall, I think everybody else in the movie is fantastic, and I think the film itself is really good.”

The film has also spawned two video games, and author Suzanne Collins consulted on both projects. The Hunger Games Adventures will be available on Facebook; you can sign up to try out the beta version. Hunger Games: Girl on Fire will be available as an iOS (Apple tablet products) game app.

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Lionsgate has released a new clip from The Hunger Games movie featuring the first meeting between Katniss Everdeen and her fashion stylist Cinna (played by musician Lenny Kravitz). The clip is embedded above–what do you think?

Hunger Games book fans will note that this bit of dialogue is not featured in the actual first novel. Fans initially protested the choice, but the clip has drawn 7,000 “likes” on Facebook as of this writing. Entertainment Weekly deemed Kravitz to be “the most intriguing casting choice.”

According to contactmusic.com, Fandango executive VP of ticket sales Rick Butler saw the “biggest first day advance ticket sales in our company’s nearly 12-year history” for The Hunger Games.

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Lionsgate has released the full track list for The Hunger Games movie soundtrack.

According to Entertainment Weekly, “The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 & Beyond” album will have 16 songs. It will be released on March 20th, and the official score will follow on March 26th.

Follow this link to see the full soundtrack listing. T Bone Burnett served as executive producer for both the soundtrack and the movie score. The soundtrack includes songs by indie bands like Arcade Fire and The Decemberists alongside songs by mainstream acts like Taylor Swift and Maroon 5.

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The Hollywood Reporter just revealed a Hunger Games cover story this month.

The article reported that 7.5 million Hunger Games books have been sold since the first trailer’s release back in November 2011.

The article included the news that Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth (the principal actors) have signed on to star in the full four-movie franchise. The trio was joined by director Gary Ross in the cover photo for this month’s issue of the magazine. Follow this link to see more pictures.

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Over at MTV News, sixteen upcoming movies were pitted against one another to determine the winner of the “MTV Movie Brawl 2012.” In the final round, almost four million votes were cast and Cosmopolis (a Don DeLillo adaptation starring Twilight actor Robert Pattinson) emerged victorious over The Hunger Games (starring Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence).

In an interview with MTV, director David Cronenberg explained how he first learned about the brawl: “Cosmopolis, while I think in terms of what it is as cinema is pretty hefty, but in terms of budget and promotion, it’s an underdog compared to something like the Dark Knight franchise. I really didn’t think we would have much of a chance. That really got my attention.”

In the video embedded above, MTV caught up with Cosmopolis actor Paul Giamatti to get his reaction on the movie’s win. Several of the Movie Brawl film are literary adaptations including John Carter, The Avengers, Snow White & the Huntsman, The Hobbitand The Dark Knight Rises.

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Hollywood has lots of new literary movies scheduled for 2012. Here are five upcoming literary movies to look forward to in the new year.

Walt Disney Animation Studios will rerelease Beauty and the Beast in 3D. The film’s story comes from Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont‘s version of the fairy tale called La Belle et la Bête. It arrives in theaters on January 13th.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the sequel to the 2007 film, once again stars Oscar winner Nicholas Cage as the Marvel Comics antihero. The movie comes out on February 17th.

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Lionsgate has unveiled a new Taylor Swift song for The Hunger Games called “Safe and Sound;” the ballad features musical-duo The Civil Wars.

Above, we’ve embedded a video that contains the full track–what do you think? Deadline reports that twelve hours following the song’s release, it hit iTunes’ top ten singles list.

Fans can expect more music to come from Canadian indie band Arcade Fire with a song titled Horn of Plenty. Folk-rock group The Decemberists also created an original song titled One Engine. All of these musical contributions will be featured on a companion album for The Hunger Games; the actual movie soundtrack will be released separately.

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