The Hunger Games Trilogy

[angelaudie]

The casting for the adults has been pitch perfect so far. Elizabeth Banks is apparently a fan of the trilogy (when Mockingjay was released she twittered she would be unavailable for the next 48 hours because she would be reading it) so I bet she was thrilled to land the role of Effie.

I'm not sure about the casting of Katniss, Gale, and Peeta though. I've got nothing against Jennifer Lawrence. Acting wise I'm sure she can pull Katniss off. She basically played Katniss in Winter's Bone. But she is a bit old for the part. Really all three are. It wouldn't be so bad if they all looked rather young for their ages but they don't. Jennifer and Liam are 21 and they look it. Josh Hutcherson is 18 but I think he looks like he's in his early 20's too. What made THG so disturbing is how young the participants are. That's certainly going to lost in the film adaptation.

[Deleted]

Aug 20, 2011 22:55:05 GMT -4 cabbagekid said:

I am confused about one part of the book, specifically in Mockinjay. How did Prim end up in front of the President's mansion? I know the book created doubts in the readers mind on who put the kids up there if it was the Capitol or District 13, but when I initially read that part, I thought the kids in front of the mansion were the kids of the Capitol and so I was surprised to read that Prim somehow ended up there. Were there other District 13 kids there?

It's been awhile since I read it, but I believe that the children were Capitol children, and then District 13 sent their medics in, with trainee Prim amongst them. And I think Coin was supposed to have possibly pulled strings to put Prim there on purpose, but I can't remember why that would have benefited her, other than just malice - I know she wanted Katniss dead, but in the chaos it would seem unlikely that Katniss would even know Prim was there.

One thing I really didn't like was Katniss voting "yes" on reinstating the Hunger Games, and then we never really see her reexamine that decision. (I also just never bought her voting yes, even with Prim's death, since she had seen so clearly and repeatedly that the Hunger Games do nothing but kill innocent kids for no reason. Were we just supposed to think that she was so far gone she didn't care? Since we're in her POV and that's a pretty big character shift, I could have done with more insight into her in that scene.) But I loved the final "real or not real" exchange between her and Peeta.

[Deleted]

Aug 21, 2011 9:52:26 GMT -4 @marchingpenguin said:

One thing I really didn't like was Katniss voting "yes" on reinstating the Hunger Games, and then we never really see her reexamine that decision. (I also just never bought her voting yes, even with Prim's death, since she had seen so clearly and repeatedly that the Hunger Games do nothing but kill innocent kids for no reason. Were we just supposed to think that she was so far gone she didn't care? Since we're in her POV and that's a pretty big character shift, I could have done with more insight into her in that scene.) But I loved the final "real or not real" exchange between her and Peeta.

Marching Penguin, I think Katniss was only pretending to go along with the idea of a last Hunger Games, so that Coin would think that Katniss was on her side and therefore, not see it coming when Katniss killed her.

[Aurora B]

Just finished this trilogy about an hour ago and read back through this thread. I thought it was a great story and was glad I was able to read all the books at one time. I got the impression that Katniss was suffering from PTSD after the first games and it was like a wound that kept reopening, with all the rest of what she was subject to, going back into the arena and then the final battles. Her character was bouncing between wanting to get away from the whole thing and, after being dragged back in time after time, going in guns blazing but kind of out of control. I actually didn't pick up the idea that she had a final plan when she was brought in to the execution though. I was wondering how the love triangle would be resolved and could see it going either way, but I accept the reasons why and how it went the way it did.

I also wonder how they are going to translate it to the screen and make it accessible for the book's target audience of teens. Because I already knew which actors were playing the major characters, (thanks EW) I didn't really form different ideas in my head of what they looked like. I'm not familiar with any of the younger actors' previous work, but reading the parts with Pres. Snow while visualizing Donald Sutherland was pretty easy. The same goes for Woody Harrellson.

[Ladybug]

I can't picture Harelson as Haymitch. When I read the books, he always looked and sounded like Philip Seymour Hoffman to me. Haymitch is a drunk, out of shape, cynical, sarcastic tactical genius, and my mind just immediately went to PSH.

For President Snow, I always pictured Mickey Rourke because it mentions how people in the Capitol are obsessed with plastic surgery and all look really unnatural.

I really, really think they should get Tom Hardy to play Finnick Odair.

[bitca]

Aug 22, 2011 10:38:20 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

For President Snow, I always pictured Mickey Rourke because it mentions how people in the Capitol are obsessed with plastic surgery and all look really unnatural.

I really, really think they should get Tom Hardy to play Finnick Odair.

Ooh, Mickey would be awesome in a terrible way for President Snow. I like it.

Oh, Lord. If they casted Tom Hardy, one of my good friends would be in a coma for a couple days. Finnick is her favorite and she's in love with the Tom Hardy.

[Deleted]

Aug 22, 2011 10:38:20 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

I really, really think they should get Tom Hardy to play Finnick Odair.

I see Finnick as being more obviously pretty than that - the kind of shirtless hottie that you dismiss as a himbo at first, before finding out his hidden layers. I see somebody like Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse in True Blood) rather than Tom Hardy, who you can tell is smart and intense by looking at him.

[badtzmaru]

Aug 20, 2011 23:03:17 GMT -4 angelaudie said:

The casting for the adults has been pitch perfect so far. Elizabeth Banks is apparently a fan of the trilogy (when Mockingjay was released she twittered she would be unavailable for the next 48 hours because she would be reading it) so I bet she was thrilled to land the role of Effie.

I'm not sure about the casting of Katniss, Gale, and Peeta though. I've got nothing against Jennifer Lawrence. Acting wise I'm sure she can pull Katniss off. She basically played Katniss in Winter's Bone. But she is a bit old for the part. Really all three are. It wouldn't be so bad if they all looked rather young for their ages but they don't. Jennifer and Liam are 21 and they look it. Josh Hutcherson is 18 but I think he looks like he's in his early 20's too. What made THG so disturbing is how young the participants are. That's certainly going to lost in the film adaptation.

I read an interview with Elizabeth Banks in Delta's inflight magazine and she was pretty open about having lobbied the producers and director (I think) for the part. She loves the character and wanted to play her for a long time.

[Deleted]

I always pictured Brian Cox as Haymitch. I have no idea why. But I do like Woody's casting.

[kostgard]

Here's the first tiny sneak peek of the movie.


Not really much there, just mainly Katniss running around in the woods (presumably during the games), though we do get a bit of [spoilered just in case]the fireballs during the early part of the games[/spoilery bit] and you get to see her shoot an arrow.

No one else appears, but you do get a voiceover from Gale.

ETA: I just realized that they worked Rue's four note whistle in there too.