Okay, really quick in case you don’t know the story behind Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” book series, because if I don’t say this and you don’t know what it is you’ll be lost this entire article. Here is the plot breakdown via Wikipedia:
The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in an unidentified future time period after the destruction of North America, in a nation known as “Panem.” Panem used to consist of a rich Capitol, located somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, and thirteen surrounding, poorer districts which cater to the Capitol’s needs. As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol wherein the thirteenth district was supposedly destroyed, every year one boy and one girl from each of the remaining twelve districts, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, are selected by lottery and forced to participate in the “Hunger Games.” The Games are a televised event where the participants, called “tributes,” must fight to the death in a dangerous outdoor arena until only one remains. The winning tribute and his/her corresponding district is then rewarded handsomely. It is required viewing for everyone in the districts.
Now, let’s move on… The latest batch of casting news for Lionsgate’s filmed adaptation of Collins’ The Hunger Games is rather inconsequential. It begins with the unnamed District 4 tributes referred to as Tribute Boy and Tribute Girl to be filled by Ethan Jamieson and Tara Macken. You excited yet?
It was also recently confirmed that Elizabeth Banks will play Effie Trinket, the District 12 chaperone to Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). However, E! Online, “John does not have an offer. NY Mag never fact checked with anyone.” Oh well, if rumors surrounding this franchise mean anything he’ll have an offer soon enough.
Speaking of rumors and NY Mag, they have another one as they report Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci and Lenny Kravitz have all been offered roles in the film. The roles for Tucci and Kravitz are unspecified, but Harrelson is said to have been offered the role of Head Gamemaker of the 74th Hunger Games, Seneca Crane.
Finally, Kristen Bell is now going the Josh Hutcherson route and has started to campaign for a role in the film. Slashfilm got hold of a message Bell relayed to one of their readers that read “Kristen Bell 4 Johanna Mason.” Mason is a female tribute from District 7 that shows up in the second book in the series “Catching Fire” as well as the third and final book, “Mockingjay”, which makes for a good lead in as I wanted to say I finally finished reading all three books.
First thing is that while I was originally skeptical when it came to the casting of Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role of Katniss I now think it’s a good choice. I still would have preferred to see unknowns cast in the lead roles of Katniss, Peeta and Gale and then surround them by bigger name actors, but director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) has decided to go the opposite route. Fine.
Where I’m most interested is in how they’ll handle the violence. This is a violent, violent book series and it gets worse and worse as it goes on, to the point the finale is a bloody mess. I imagine they can go the safe, but gritty route Ridley Scott went for last year’s Robin Hood for the first two films, but my vision of the third book, “Mockingjay,” has elements of Pitch Black and the tunnel sequence in Cloverfield, but mostly Black Hawk Down. I’d love to see the final product mimic the style in which those films were shot, and while the first two could probably be PG-13 features, the third is going to have a rough time unless they tone it way, way down.
I’m also going to be interested to see how they handle book two, which, to me was more-or-less a rehash of the first book with a few different twists and turns. The third is where it becomes something completely different and while it stagnates a bit at the beginning, the second half really brings home the goods and primarily because Suzanne Collins is not afraid to make a decision. There are two specific moments at the end of “Mockingjay” where she completely shocked me and that’s hard to do. And she doesn’t pussyfoot around, she presents the material and doesn’t doll it up to make it easier for you to deal with or react. If you want to deal with it, do it on your own time, she has more story to tell. Good stuff.
The Hunger Games is expected to go into production later this year for a planned March 23, 2012 release. For more on the film click here.
