2012 was a strong year for film, delivering numerous high quality event movies and also a ton of very excellent serious fare as well. But perhaps it's the overall high quality that made us take note of the moments in which we were wrenched out of our suspended disbelief, or maybe it's just that the gods of moviedom knew something had to be done to prevent people from taking themselves too seriously. Either way, the year was blessed with some rather amazeballs moments of unintentional awkwardness that really forced us to step back and gasp, "Did that really happen?!" [SPOILERS!] more »
The Expendables 2 packs a power-punch of action rough 'em up characters including Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Dame, Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Hemsworth. In their second outting, Mr. Church reunites the group for what should be an easy paycheck, but things go wrong when one of their men is murdered on the job. Revenge is on their minds, but that puts them in enemy territory up against an unexpected threat. The film hits theaters later this year, but Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph received some insider impressions of the new pic courtesy of cast members Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture at Comic-Con.
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Osar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has been cast to play Plutarch Heavensbee, Head Gamemaker for The Hunger Games, studio Lionsgate said. Hoffman recently wrapped his gig playing Willy Loman on Broadway in the revival of Death of a Salesman, which earned him a Tony Award nomination. He will next been seen in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and indie film A Late Quartet, also starring Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken. The second installment of The Hunger Games franchise is based on Suzanne Collins' smash hit series of novels that have sold 36 million copies in the U.S.
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will be released via IMAX on November 23rd. Director Francis Lawrence will make use of IMAX cameras in filming portions of the second installment of the franchise, Lionsgate is touting. Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence will reprise her role as Katniss Everdeen along with fellow cast members Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson.
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Up in Canada, documentary festival Hot Docs gave out its prizes over the weekend, while Stateside, the Tribeca Film Festival unveiled plans for a new event in Italy. Madonna remembers Beasties' Adam Yauch and Morgan Spurlock launches a new production company. Check out more in Monday's Biz Break.
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Movie events have become deadly little things, highly mechanized gadgets thrown by studio marketing departments into an audience’s midst in advance; then we just stand around and wait for them to explode. The Hunger Games, adapted from the first of Suzanne Collins’ hugely successful trio of young adult novels, was decreed an event long before it became anything close to a movie: More than a year ago its studio, Lionsgate, launched a not-so-stealthy advertising campaign that made extensive use of social media to coax potential fans into convincing one another that they had to see this movie. The marketing was so nervily persuasive that you had to wonder: How could any movie – especially one that, as it turns out, is largely and surprisingly naturalistic, as opposed to the usual toppling tower of special effects – possibly hope to measure up?
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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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The Hunger Games preys on the box office in March, but in the meantime eight of the battledome-savvy characters are squaring off in new posters for the film. Jennifer Lawrence looks fetching under a golden haze, Lenny Kravitz looks a lot like Lenny Kravitz, and Josh Hutcherson keeps looking younger and younger. Seriously, he's wearing his Bridge to Terabithia face here.
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Variety's Showblitz reports that youngster Liam Hemsworth, who gets his biggest break since dating Miley Cyrus in next year's The Hunger Games, has been cast in the sprawling ensemble of The Expendables 2. Wait, you say -- isn't he, like, four or five decades too young for this film? At 21, Hemsworth is quite a bit less wrinkly than his co-stars. Let's start guessing now who he'll play: Sly's son? A flashback version of Jean-Claude Van Damme? Mickey Rourke's bicep? [Variety]
When EW debuted the first look at Jennifer Lawrence as heroine Katniss Everdeen in Lionsgate's The Hunger Games, it looked pretty damn good. But will Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson fare as well when it comes to embodying the well-loved characters of Gale and Peeta in Gary Ross's 2012 adaptation? Get your first full look at the men of The Hunger Games after the jump!
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Now that Lionsgate's Hunger Games casting roll-out is juuuuust about done (where art thou, President Snow? [UPDATE: There you are!]), Movieline has assembled the cast members of Gary Ross's YA now-filming novel adaptation for your perusal. After the jump, behold the faces of District 12 heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her friends, family, fellow fresh-meat tributes, and key players.
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You've got your new Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) -- now it's time to start fleshing out the rest of the Hunger Games cast. Lionsgate announced today that they've selected newcomers Dayo Okeniyi and Amandla Stenberg to play Thresh and Rue, respectively. So who are these two future tributes from the Southern climes of District 11?
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Chris Hemsworth, the Norse god Thor himself, revealed recently that he helped brother Liam rehearse for his Hunger Games auditions by reading the part of Katniss aloud. Liam eventually landed the part of Gale, one of two young men in love with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) in Lionsgate's 2012 adaptation of Suzanne Collins's YA novels, but lest you assume that means the elder Hemsworth is unequivocally on Team Gale, think again. Talking with Movieline he explains his ties to Liam's future on-screen rival, Josh Hutcherson, and how they've landed him firmly in the middle of the Peeta-Gale conflict.
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As the YA-addicted world awaits the conclusion of The Twilight Saga, internet storms are a-brewin' over the next teen franchise with Twilight-level potential: Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. But with casting speculation at a fever pitch (director Gary Ross should anoint his chosen ones any week now), it's time for some real talk: Most of your favorite young thespians aren't going to make the cut.
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