The Hunger Games (film)
Encyclopedia
The Hunger Games is an upcoming science fiction
action
drama
film directed by Gary Ross
and is based on the novel of the same name
by Suzanne Collins
. It stars Jennifer Lawrence
, Josh Hutcherson
and Liam Hemsworth
. It is scheduled to be released on March 23, 2012.
Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, sixteen year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence
) is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson
) and the suspicious help of a fellow Tribute, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson
). If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
, Abigail Breslin
, Saoirse Ronan
, Chloë Moretz
, Lyndsy Fonseca
, Emily Browning
, Shailene Woodley
, and Kaya Scodelario
. According to The Hollywood Reporter
, contenders for the role of Peeta other than Hutcherson included Alexander Ludwig (who was later cast as Cato), Hunter Parrish
, Lucas Till
, and Evan Peters
. In April 2011, John C. Reilly
was in talks with Lionsgate to portray Haymitch Abernathy, former victor of a Hunger Games held years before and mentor to Katniss and Peeta. The following month it was announced that the role went to Woody Harrelson
.
's production company Color Force. Collins adapted the novel for film herself, and her script was revised by screenwriter Billy Ray. Collins anticipates the film to have a PG-13 rating. Alli Shearmur, Lionsgate President of Motion Picture Production, and Jim Miller, Lionsgate Senior Vice President of Motion Picture Production, are in charge of overseeing the production of the movie. Shearmur said:
Gary Ross
became the director in November 2010. With an initial budget of $75 million, principal photography
began in Burke County, North Carolina
in Western North Carolina
in May 2011 and concluded on September 15, 2011 with a final budget of just under $100 million.
Academy Award-winner T-Bone Burnett
and Academy Award-nominee Danny Elfman
will provide the score for the film.
At a concert in Berlin
in October 2011, Academy Award-winner Glen Hansard
announced that he would be featured on the movie's soundtrack album and played a song written from Katniss's perspective.
, is scheduled to be released on November 22, 2013. In November 2011, Lionsgate entered negotiations with Slumdog Millionaire
and 127 Hours
screenwriter Simon Beaufoy
to adapt the novel for screen, since the post-production schedule for The Hunger Games is too crowded for Ross and Collins to adapt the next film as originally planned. Ross is still expected to return as director for the sequel.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
action
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
film directed by Gary Ross
Gary Ross
Gary Ross is an American writer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both of which featured Tobey Maguire in the lead role...
and is based on the novel of the same name
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games is a first person young-adult science fiction novel written by Suzanne Collins. It was originally published on September 14, 2008, by Scholastic. It is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world...
by Suzanne Collins
Suzanne Collins
Suzanne Collins is an American television writer and novelist.-Early life:Suzanne Collins is the daughter of an Air Force officer. She graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts and earned her M.F.A. from New York University in Dramatic Writing....
. It stars Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American film and television actress. She has had lead roles in TBS's The Bill Engvall Show and in the independent films The Burning Plain and Winter's Bone, for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress...
, Josh Hutcherson
Josh Hutcherson
Joshua Ryan "Josh" Hutcherson is an American film and television actor. He began working in the early 2000s, appearing in several minor film and television roles...
and Liam Hemsworth
Liam Hemsworth
Liam Hemsworth is an Australian actor. He took the role of Josh Taylor in the soap opera Neighbours and as "Marcus" on the children's television series The Elephant Princess and appeared in the American film The Last Song, released on 31 March 2010...
. It is scheduled to be released on March 23, 2012.
Plot
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, sixteen year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American film and television actress. She has had lead roles in TBS's The Bill Engvall Show and in the independent films The Burning Plain and Winter's Bone, for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress...
) is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
) and the suspicious help of a fellow Tribute, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson
Josh Hutcherson
Joshua Ryan "Josh" Hutcherson is an American film and television actor. He began working in the early 2000s, appearing in several minor film and television roles...
). If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
Cast
- Jennifer LawrenceJennifer LawrenceJennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American film and television actress. She has had lead roles in TBS's The Bill Engvall Show and in the independent films The Burning Plain and Winter's Bone, for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress...
as Katniss EverdeenKatniss EverdeenKatniss Everdeen is the main character of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy. Her name comes from an edible plant called katniss. Jennifer Lawrence is set to portray Katniss in the upcoming movie The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross.... - Josh HutchersonJosh HutchersonJoshua Ryan "Josh" Hutcherson is an American film and television actor. He began working in the early 2000s, appearing in several minor film and television roles...
as Peeta MellarkPeeta MellarkPeeta Mellark is one of the protagonists of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins... - Woody HarrelsonWoody HarrelsonWoodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
as Haymitch Abernathy - Willow ShieldsWillow ShieldsWillow Shields is an American film and television actress. Her recent work includes portraying Lisa Rogan a.k.a. Lisa Royal in a 2009 episode of the USA Network drama In Plain Sight, entitled "In My Humbolt Opinion," and the voice of a girl watching a gun fight in the 7-minute 2008 Western film...
as Primrose Everdeen - Liam HemsworthLiam HemsworthLiam Hemsworth is an Australian actor. He took the role of Josh Taylor in the soap opera Neighbours and as "Marcus" on the children's television series The Elephant Princess and appeared in the American film The Last Song, released on 31 March 2010...
as Gale HawthorneGale HawthorneGale Hawthorne is one of the main characters of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy.-Character background:Gale is two years older than the main protagonist, Katniss Everdeen. His father was killed in the mine explosion that also killed Katniss's father, leaving his mother, Hazelle, a widow... - Elizabeth BanksElizabeth BanksElizabeth Maresal Mitchell , known professionally as Elizabeth Banks, is an American actress. Banks had her film debut in the low-budget independent film Surrender Dorothy...
as Effie Trinket - Lenny KravitzLenny KravitzLeonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
as Cinna - Paula MalcomsonPaula MalcomsonPaula Malcomson is a Northern Irish actress born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Malcomson is sometimes credited as Paula Williams.She starred as "Trixie" in the HBO series Deadwood and Colleen in ABC's Lost...
as Mrs. Everdeen - Amandla Stenberg as Rue
- Alexander Ludwig as Cato
- Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh
- Isabelle FuhrmanIsabelle FuhrmanIsabelle Fuhrman is an American teen actress. Fuhrman is best known for playing Esther in Orphan.-Life and career:...
as Clove - Jacqueline EmersonJacqueline EmersonJacqueline "Jackie" Emerson is an American teen actress and a member of the of the rock band Devo 2.0. Jacquline will be playing Foxface in the upcoming film The Hunger Games.- Filmography :-External links:...
as Foxface - Leven RambinLeven RambinLeven Alice Rambin is an American actress. She is best known for playing look-alike half-sisters Lily Montgomery and Ava Benton on All My Children and her recurring roles in; Grey's Anatomy, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, One Tree Hill and CSI: Miami.-Biography:Rambin was born in...
as Glimmer - Jack Quaid as Marvel
- Donald SutherlandDonald SutherlandDonald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
as President Snow - Stanley TucciStanley TucciStanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
as Caesar Flickerman - Wes BentleyWes BentleyWesley Cook "Wes" Bentley is an American film actor known for his role of Ricky Fitts in American Beauty.-Early life:Bentley was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the son of Cherie and David Bentley, who are United Methodist ministers....
as Seneca Crane - Latarsha Rose as Portia
Casting
Lionsgate confirmed in March 2011 that about 30 actresses either met or read for the role of Katniss, including Hailee SteinfeldHailee Steinfeld
Hailee Steinfeld is an American actress. She rose to fame for her portrayal as Mattie Ross in the 2010 film True Grit, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.-Early life:Steinfeld was born in Tarzana, Los...
, Abigail Breslin
Abigail Breslin
Abigail Kathleen Breslin is an American teen actress. She is one of the youngest actresses ever to be nominated for an Academy Award....
, Saoirse Ronan
Saoirse Ronan
Saoirse Una Ronan is an Irish film actress. She began her career as a child and came to international prominence in 2007 after co-starring in the film Atonement, which gained her nominations for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.Ronan has since appeared in...
, Chloë Moretz
Chloe Moretz
Chloë Grace Moretz is an American actress, known for her role as Hit-Girl in the 2010 superhero film Kick-Ass. She also appeared in The Amityville Horror, Days of Summer, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hugo, and portrayed Abby, the child vampire, in Let Me In.-Personal life:Moretz was born in Atlanta,...
, Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Marie Fonseca is an American actress known for playing Colleen Carlton on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and The Restless, Dylan Mayfair on the ABC series Desperate Housewives, and Ted Mosby's daughter on How I Met Your Mother. She also played Katie Deauxma in the 2010 superhero film...
, Emily Browning
Emily Browning
Emily Jane Browning is an Australian film actress and fashion model, known for her roles as Violet Baudelaire in Brad Silberling's 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Anna Ivers in the 2009 film The Uninvited, as Babydoll in Zack Snyder's 2011 action thriller Sucker...
, Shailene Woodley
Shailene Woodley
Shailene Diann Woodley is an American actress. Woodley is known for portraying Amy Juergens in the ABC Family series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and for co-starring with George Clooney in the 2011 drama film The Descendants.-Early life:Woodley was born in Simi Valley, California...
, and Kaya Scodelario
Kaya Scodelario
Kaya Rose Scodelario is a British actress and model. She is best known for her role as Effy Stonem in the E4 drama Skins.-Skins :...
. According to The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, contenders for the role of Peeta other than Hutcherson included Alexander Ludwig (who was later cast as Cato), Hunter Parrish
Hunter Parrish
Hunter Parrish is an American actor and singer. He is known for playing Silas Botwin in Showtime's television series Weeds.-Personal life:...
, Lucas Till
Lucas Till
Lucas Daniel Till is an American actor. He began acting in the early 2000s, and has since appeared in a number of films and television parts, including his roles on House, Hannah Montana: The Movie and X-Men: First Class...
, and Evan Peters
Evan Peters
Evan Peters is an American actor, best known for his roles as Tate Langdon in American Horror Story, Jesse Varon in the ABC TV series Invasion and as Cooper Day in The Days, also on ABC. He also had a recurring role in Disney Channel's show Phil of the Future as Phil's geeky friend Seth...
. In April 2011, John C. Reilly
John C. Reilly
John Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...
was in talks with Lionsgate to portray Haymitch Abernathy, former victor of a Hunger Games held years before and mentor to Katniss and Peeta. The following month it was announced that the role went to Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
.
Production
Lionsgate Entertainment acquired worldwide distribution rights in March 2009 with Nina JacobsonNina Jacobson
Nina Jacobson is an American film executive who, until July 2006, was president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
's production company Color Force. Collins adapted the novel for film herself, and her script was revised by screenwriter Billy Ray. Collins anticipates the film to have a PG-13 rating. Alli Shearmur, Lionsgate President of Motion Picture Production, and Jim Miller, Lionsgate Senior Vice President of Motion Picture Production, are in charge of overseeing the production of the movie. Shearmur said:
"The Hunger Games is an incredible property and it is a thrill to bring it home to Lionsgate. This is exactly the kind of movie I came to Lionsgate to make: youthful, exciting, smart and edgy. We are looking forward to working with Nina and Suzanne to create a movie that satisfies audiences' hunger for high-quality entertainment."
Gary Ross
Gary Ross
Gary Ross is an American writer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both of which featured Tobey Maguire in the lead role...
became the director in November 2010. With an initial budget of $75 million, principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began in Burke County, North Carolina
Burke County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 89,148 people, 34,528 households, and 24,342 families residing in the county. The population density was 176 people per square mile . There were 37,427 housing units at an average density of 74 per square mile...
in Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains, thus it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It is sometimes included with upstate South Carolina as the "Western Carolinas", which is also counted as a single media market...
in May 2011 and concluded on September 15, 2011 with a final budget of just under $100 million.
Academy Award-winner T-Bone Burnett
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...
and Academy Award-nominee Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film. Up until 1995, he was the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band Oingo Boingo, a group he formed in 1976...
will provide the score for the film.
At a concert in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in October 2011, Academy Award-winner Glen Hansard
Glen Hansard
Glen Hansard is the Academy Award–winning principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for Irish group The Frames and one half of folk rock duo, The Swell Season...
announced that he would be featured on the movie's soundtrack album and played a song written from Katniss's perspective.
Sequel
On August 8, 2011, while still shooting the film, Lionsgate announced that a film adaptation of the second novel in The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching FireCatching Fire (2009 novel)
Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. As the sequel to the 2008 bestseller The Hunger Games, it continues the story of Katniss Everdeen and the fictional, futuristic nation of Panem...
, is scheduled to be released on November 22, 2013. In November 2011, Lionsgate entered negotiations with Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
and 127 Hours
127 Hours
127 Hours is a 2010 biographical adventure drama film co-written, produced and directed by Danny Boyle. The film stars James Franco as mountain climber Aron Ralston, who became trapped by a boulder in Robbers Roost, Utah in April 2003....
screenwriter Simon Beaufoy
Simon Beaufoy
Simon Beaufoy is a British screenwriter. Born in Keighley, he was educated at Malsis School in Cross Hills, Ermysted's Grammar School and Sedbergh School, he read English at St Peter's College, Oxford and graduated from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth...
to adapt the novel for screen, since the post-production schedule for The Hunger Games is too crowded for Ross and Collins to adapt the next film as originally planned. Ross is still expected to return as director for the sequel.