V Magazine Photoshoot and Interviews with Isabelle Fuhrman & Amandla Stenberg

For the new issue of V Magazine, Drew Barrymore photographed seven Hollywood up-and-comers, including The Hunger Games’ own Isabelle Fuhrman and Amandla Stenberg.  In the accompanying interviews, the actresses talk about their careers as well as their roles in The Hunger Games.

To moviegoers around the world, the character Clove in The Hunger Games is a vengeful teenage assassin. But to Isabelle Fuhrman, the actress who played her, the character is more nuanced. “In my mind, Clove was never an assassin,” she says. “I imagined her as having a very tragic life with specific moments that drove her to become, for lack of a better word, crazy.”

Amandla:  “When my agent called to tell me I was going to play Rue, I literally started running around the room and hyperventilating. I kept shouting, ‘I’m Rue, I’m Rue!’” she remembers. “My mother had to get me a glass of water and tell me to take deep breaths. We have it all on tape. It’s funny to watch.”

You can see more pics of Isabelle and Amandla, as well as the other five starlets featured in the shoot, at V Magazine.

Via Us Magazine

UK FANS: The Hunger Games on DVD and Blu-Ray at Tesco Entertainment

For fans in the UK, The Hunger Games DVD and Blu-Ray can be pre-ordered from  Tesco Entertainment for  £10.00 and £15.00 respectively.

Apparently you don’t have to worry about paying too much as Tesco says it runs the pre-order promise, which guarantees that should the price you are quoted when you pre-rder differs from the pice on the day of release, you’ll get the lowest displayed price.

The DVD will be out in the UK on September 3rd.

Souce: Tesco Entertainment 

Jennifer Lawrence: Catching Fire ‘Will Be Very Real’

We feel like it’s been awhile since we heard Jennifer Lawrence talk about The Hunger Games, so we’re excited about this new (albeit brief) interview with the actress from the Los Angeles Times’ 24 Frames blog.

“The new movie will be very real, which is what I’m excited about,” she told 24 Frames of “Catching Fire,” which Francis Lawrence will direct. “I really like his take, which is a lot of what I liked in Gary Ross,” she added. “It’s the realistic grasp of the story instead of all the details of the imaginary things.”

Lawrence said she’s met with the director and believes that, overall, he’s trying to continue what Ross started with his adaptation of the first book in the Suzanne Collins’ series. “He’s not trying to reinvent anything,” she said.

RUMOR: Mia Wasikowska and Zoe Aggeliki in Running to Play Johanna

Collider is reporting:

Sources tell The Playlist that both Wasikowska and Aggeliki are “in the mix” for the Johanna part, as Lawrence is said to be considering both big names and lesser talents. The Playlist was the first outlet to report that Gary Ross wouldn’t be returning to direct Catching Fire, so I’m inclined to put considerable weight behind their story. Wasikowska is an exciting prospect as she’s done swell work in films like Jane Eyre and The Kids Are All Right, but Aggeliki is a bona fide newcomer. She has roles in the upcoming pics R.I.P.D. and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, but we haven’t seen her act in anything yet so it’s hard to gauge who would be a better pick for Johanna.

The Playlist adds that both actresses have been in discussions for the part, but Aggeliki could officially sign on in a matter of days. That said, nothing’s certain just yet so Lawrence’s final choice could be someone else entirely. We should hear word soon either way, as production is scheduled to begin immenintley.

What do you all think about these two actresses for Johanna? Tell us in the comments below!

Visitors Vandalizing ‘Hunger Games’ Filming Location

Earlier this month, news anchor Russ Bowen tweeted about some property being vandalized at Henry River Mill Village, the location used for the Seam in The Hunger Games movie. The local newspaper, the Hickory Daily Record, has some more information from the property’s owner.

Wade Shepherd, owner of the 72-acre village, is just about fed up with the vandalism and the trash being left at the village.

The village stood in as District 12 in the movie, which was the home district of heroine Katniss Everdeen and other characters such as Peeta Mellark and his family’s bakery, Gale Hawthorne and Haymitch Abernathy. The old mill village had a general store and it was used in the movie as the Mellark bakery. The words “pastries” and “cakes” were painted on the wood on either side of the main door for the movie. The words were left when filming wrapped at the location.

The Hunger Games Moves up the Box Office Charts

The Hunger Games continues to earn money at the box office across the US and has now taken another leap up the  All Time Domestic Chart, moving into the #13 spot ahead of Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen.

It is closing in on Spider Man  with less than $1.4 million to go before it jumps into  #12 place.

Source: Box Office Mojo

The Hunger Games nominated for five Total Film Hotlist Awards

The Hunger Games has been nominated in five categories for the UK’s  Total Film Hotlist 2012

The list includes:

Jennifer Lawrence – Hottest Actress

Farewell Rue – Hottest Scene

Liam Hemsworth  – Hottest Newcomer – Male

Catching Fire – Hottest Book

The Hunger Games – Hottest Film

The future’s bleak in this gripping adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ popular young adult page-turner.

Perfectly cast as feisty 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, Jennifer Lawrence plays a blinder, bringing just the right amount of sensitivity and severity to a tricky, multi-faceted role. She really comes into her own when Katniss is selected to participate in the annual Hunger Games, where it’s kill or be killed for entertainment’s sake.

Delivering a breakneck actioner as colourful as it is caustic, director Gary Ross doesn’t shy away from the novel’s barbed social commentary.

You can head here to vote!

The Hunger Games in China

In a huge coup for Lionsgate, The Hunger Games has opened in China, a move that could see the film  break even more box office records.

And so far it seems to have played to audiences fairly well.

According to The Epoch Times, it’s been given some high profile support including one prominent Chinese television personality who described it as “the most moving and thoughtful of recent films”.

Here’s some of the other praise The Hunger Games received:

Several others praised the film and sympathized with the plight of the teens: “It has been a long time since I last cried at a movie. When Katniss shows the hand sign of farewell to the people of District 12, I took it as the poor people’s cry for injustice and unfair treatment. It was shocking to see.”

A more somber tone was taken by “colin:” “Too bad that the teens did not die, sparking a revolt against the dictatorship. Perhaps that’s also a regret existing in reality.”

According to “light blue jade:” “Having to struggle against a bloody and treacherous web of intrigue is similar to our own country, so I feel that this was no mere teen flick.”

The film makes clear the contrast between the well-off residents of the “Capitol” and the subsistence standard in the “Districts.”

“Icy leaves,” in Guangdong, remarking on this, wrote: “Go see it and afterwards you’ll know that everything is controlled by politics, just like society today where those with the bucks get the respect!”

Source: The Epoch Times

Simon Beaufoy Says He’s Done with ‘Catching Fire’ Script

Last month The Hollywood Reporter reported that Michael Arndt was in talks to re-work the initial Catching Fire script that was drafted by Simon Beaufoy.

So it’s not particularly surprising to hear Simon tell the LA Times in a new interview that he’s finished with his part of the script-writing process.

You might not think there’s much left for a Hollywood screenwriter to accomplish after penning a sequel to “The Hunger Games.” But for Simon Beaufoy, the Oscar-winning scribe behind “Slumdog Millionaire,” there’s plenty of work ahead now that he’s  finished adapting Suzanne Collins’ novel “Catching Fire.”

“I’m done [with ‘Catching Fire’] and getting back to several different projects,” Beaufoy told 24 Frames from his home in London on Thursday.

There still hasn’t been any official confirmation from Lionsgate that Michael Arndt is working on the next iteration of the script.

The Hunger Games tops $400 Million at the US Box Office

The Hunger Games managed to pass the $400 million mark in the US this weekend.  In fact according to Box Office Mojo it’s made $400,250,000!  That puts The Hunger Games in 14th place for all-time domestic grosses – that’s ahead of  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Star Wars: Episode III.

According to Deadline:

That Lionsgate blockbuster The Hunger Gamescame into this weekend with a domestic theatrical gross of $399.5M. Sometime today the bestselling book-turned-movie is crossing the $400M mark at the U.S. and Canadian box office. Adding The Avengers and assuming The Dark Knight Rises is a sure thing, this will be the first year where 3 movies end up with over $400 million in North American grosses. Its global cume is near $650M.