With Lionsgate's big screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ teen-centric sci-fi survival-adventure The Hunger Games hitting screens this week, it’s kind of impossible not to draw comparisons to that other YA juggernaut series, which concludes its billion-dollar run on pop culture this fall. So how does The Hunger Games measure up to Twilight?
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Gary Ross may have been an unexpected choice to direct The Hunger Games, but his quest for the gig was no less obsessive than the fervor of the novels’ fans; it took him exec-stalking across the Atlantic, involved elaborate custom-made storyboards, and inspired him to make a video of actual Hunger Games fans and their love for Suzanne Collins’s sci-fi series. (Besides, who else could’ve brought on Steven Soderbergh to direct second unit on one of the film’s big scenes?)
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Preparing for a battle to the death in which the odds are most definitely not in her favor, Jennifer Lawrence’s Hunger Games heroine Katniss Everdeen feels utterly alone, trapped within the deceptively cushy confines of the Capitol. Thankfully, she has at least one key ally on her side: Her stylist Cinna, played gracefully by rock star-turned-actor Lenny Kravitz, who discovered only after being cast that he’d be sharing the screen with one of his daughter’s close friends. “I asked, ‘Who’s playing Katniss?’” Kravitz recalled to Movieline. “‘It’s Jennifer Lawrence.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, she was just in my house cooking breakfast!’”
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Now here's an image that could inspire a rebellion: Jennifer Lawrence hit the premiere of The Hunger Games in shiny, glowing gold, joining cast mates Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, and more to celebrate the upcoming YA event movie. Well, OK -- that number's not quite bow and arrow, running-through-the-woods killing people-friendly, but JenLaw destroyed everyone else on that black carpet, including guest (and... secret Hunger Games fan?) Sylvester Stallone. Photos after the jump!
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Young heroes rebel against a fascist government that controls its citizenry through institutionalized terror and reality television, igniting a revolution that spreads across an isolated land via broadcast images and word of mouth. The Arab Spring? Nope. Try The Hunger Games, set in a dystopian sci-fi future that parallels current global unrest, which stars Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Banks, and Donald Sutherland say they hope could spur a generation of YA-consuming youths into political action.
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With The Hunger Games just two Fridays away from blowing up the box office, it's about time you get acquainted with the YA phenomenon launched by Suzanne Collins bestselling novels. So for the next ten days, Movieline will be counting down to The Hunger Games with a new feature every day to prep you for the dystopian sci-fi saga. Let's start things off with a look at a newly unveiled clip featuring Josh Hutcherson (Bridge to Terabithia, The Kids Are All Right) as golden boy Peeta, who declares his love for Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss on national television. Cue the collective swoon in 3, 2, 1...
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It's the start to a pivotal relationship in The Hunger Games saga: Newly minted tribute Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) meets her Capitol-assigned stylist, Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), who will help her put on a brave, fierce face for the media circus leading up to the televised deathmatch known as the Hunger Games. Watch the two meet in a promising clip from the March 23 release and chime in: Does this scene bode well for the franchise-launching adaptation?
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Screw the bread: From the innovative bakery that brought you edible Uggies — and just in time for one of the more passionately anticipated opening days of the year — comes this remarkable contribution to the annals of sweets: Hunger Games cookies.
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With only three weeks to go until YA adaptation The Hunger Games hits theaters, Lionsgate has released the first actual clip from the Gary Ross-directed film, and it's a memorable moment Hunger Games fans should recognize: Forced to show off her skills for the Capitol's boorish, drunken Gamemakers -- the designers of the Games, headed by Wes Bentley's Seneca Crane -- Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) lets an arrow fly in an act of defiance that finally gets their attention.
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After receiving over 600 entries in our Hunger Games haiku contest, it took some Katniss-strength fortitude to find one victor to take home the coveted grand prize, a pair of tickets to the March 12 Los Angeles premiere. You think choosing between Peeta and Gale is hard? Try selecting a winner from the vivid, emotional, romantic, lyrical, hilarious, and evocative poems submitted by Hunger Games diehards in our Cornucopia of words.
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As The Hunger Games' March 23 release fast approaches, Lionsgate is churning out a steady stream of stills and goodies and tie-ins to stoke the fires of fandom and they've put a surprising bit of marketing muscle behind not only star Jennifer Lawrence, but co-star Elizabeth Banks and her supporting character, Effie Trinket. On second thought, maybe that's not so surprising; Effie's strikingly gaudy visual look, representative of image-obsessed Capitol culture in the fictional nation of Panem, offers more in the way of marketing opportunities than Katniss Everdeen's tomboy-turned-teen warrior ensembles.
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First day advance ticket sales (i.e. sales on the first day tickets are made available) for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse had held the number one spot in Fandango history until this week, when the YA adaptation The Hunger Games took the crown. You hear that? It's the sound of Lionsgate execs exhaling a month ahead of their franchise-starter's March 23 debut. The Hunger Games could still drop off considerably after its first week of release, but this is a great early sign for Katniss & Co. [Deadline]
Hunger Games fans, here's your chance to be among the first to see Lionsgate's highly anticipated YA novel adaptation -- Movieline is giving away a pair of tickets to the Los Angeles premiere of The Hunger Games, starring Jennifer Lawrence as teen warrior Katniss Everdeen, based on the novels by Suzanne Collins. To decide our winner, we're holding a Cornucopia of words: A Hunger Games Haiku contest! Channel your inner mockingjay and get to composing in the comments below. [UPDATE: Thanks to all who played -- and there were a lot of you! Submissions will be closed at 5PT/8ET.]
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Next month brings the launch of The Hunger Games, one of the most-anticipated releases of the 2012 calendar and the first installment of a hopeful franchise based on Suzanne Collins's bestselling young-adult adventure trilogy. In selling their film, studio execs at Lionsgate have ramped up all manner of marketing to immerse fans in the experience — and, in doing so, have made the least-populated jursdiction on the planet a financial beneficiary.
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When I first heard Taylor Swift's Hunger Games soundtrack single, the twangy country ballad "Safe & Sound," I wasn't so keen on how Swifty channeled teen heroine Katniss Everdeen, T-Bone Burnett's support or no. (I did, however, dig the gentle melodics of country folk duo The Civil Wars, who back Swift on the song and share songwriting credits with her and Burnett.) Now the music video for the single has debuted, a dreamy nature-themed joint that lovingly follows Swift as she traipses barefoot around the woods sharing meaningful glances with deer and twigs.
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