Salon.com > Hunger Games

“Hunger Games” director eyes Julianne Moore as President Alma Coin

Thu, 27 Jun 2013 19:11:00 +0000

Julianne More, the "Game Change" actress whose portrayal of Sarah Palin won the HBO mini-series a Golden Globe, is in talks for the upcoming "The Hunger Games" sequels, reports Deadline. If cast, she'd go from playing a VP hopeful to President Alma Coin, a character who doesn't appear until the second film in the trilogy adapted from the Suzanne Collins books.

I’ve heard that Lionsgate and director Francis Lawrence are eyeing Julianne Moore to play the role of President Alma Coin. She is the manipulative politician who figures brightly in the finale as Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) becomes a symbol of rebellion against the autocratic Capitol government. This is likely to happen quickly, and Moore would star in both of the final films, which brings back Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth and the returning cast along with Philip Seymour Hoffman, who will be making his first appearance in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," directed by Francis Lawrence, will be released November 22, 2013. "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay" will be filmed in two parts, to be released in 2014 and 2015.

The best imaginary boyfriends of all time

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:43:00 +0000

Maybe it's strange to hope your daughter falls in love with the same person you once did, but I couldn't help it. I'd hoped he'd win her heart as he had mine, even if he did a set a standard that no other man could quite achieve. And, in fact, when I showed my 13 year-old daughter "Say Anything" for the first time a few weeks ago, she was impressed. She laughed at all the right places, at jokes about shopping malls and Gas n' Sips. She said later it was one of her favorite movies ever. But, as it turned out, she was remarkably unmoved by Lloyd Dobler. The character who has preoccupied the fantasies of damn near every straight genx female for almost 25 years left my child, a young lady of an entirely different era, undeniably meh. But then, a week later, she went and fell in love with someone else. She had barely cracked her copy of "The Fault In Our Stars," and she was head over heels with Augustus Waters.

Watch “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” trailer

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:32:00 +0000

The second movie in "The Hunger Games" trilogy is almost here. The film's teaser trailer debuted at the MTV Movie Awards this weekend, offering a peek at a new set of deadly challenges that District 12's Katniss Everdeen will have to overcome.

"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" is due in theaters Nov. 22.

Tea Party wows CPAC with faux-”Hunger Games” trailer

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:40:00 +0000

CPAC has its first viral hit -- this video about a "Liberty Party" freeing America from the chains of a "Development Party" that only wants to provide and make you stand in line. Watch it below:

Anne Hathaway: Hollywood’s most polarizing star

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Anne Hathaway has it all: The movie star jumps between lucrative studio pictures like "The Dark Knight Rises" and and passion projects like "Rachel Getting Married." She recently wed boyfriend Adam Shulman in a Valentino gown. And her occasional missteps haven't hurt her one bit -- potential career-enders like "One Day" and "Get Smart" give way to bigger and better movies. Her former boyfriend's imprisonment for running a Ponzi scheme was brushed aside. She flopped as an Oscar host in 2011, but came back to win the best supporting actress trophy for "Les Misérables" at this year's ceremony.

And her public finds it all so infuriating.

Hathaway is the subject of more vituperative, angry scrutiny than perhaps any actress working today. "Shut up. Shut up, Anne Hathaway. I honestly don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m jealous, but I don’t feel jealousy. I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person," wrote a blogger for women's-interest site Crushable. "I don’t find her perfection charming. I find it annoying."

Jennifer Lawrence’s fall to grace

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Last night, a debate broke out among our friends on whether the 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, now crowned by the academy as the best actress for her terrific performance in "Silver Linings Playbook," will have staying power. One insisted she was a flash in the pan. The rest of us, who first fell hard for her in "Winter's Bone," argued that she really does have the chops. Who can say, really. Remember, Dr. Haing S. Ngor won an Oscar for his brilliant performance in "The Killing Fields," and that was pretty much the last we saw of him. So, only time will tell how her career pans out, though she's poised — with the Hunger Games franchise, and a new deal to reteam with David O. Russell — to stick around for a while. Really, the question that lingers is: Why are young women held to such scrutiny?

CW orders reality TV show that sounds like “The Hunger Games”

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:14:00 +0000

The CW network, known mostly for its cadre of mediocre female-centric shows, has announced a new reality TV series called "The Hunt," which it describes as "an intense wilderness competition."

The show sounds a lot like "The Hunger Games": 12 teams of two will be released into the wild without food, water or shelter with the goal of trying to ~~kill~~ "capture each other." The winning team takes home a cash prize (and "Hunger Games" survival boasting rights).

"The Hunt" does not yet have a premiere date.

“Hunger Games” author to release new book in 2013

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:43:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) -- "The Hunger Games" novelist Suzanne Collins has a new book coming out next year.

The multimillion-selling children's author has completed an autobiographical picture story scheduled for Sept. 10, 2013, Scholastic Inc. announced Thursday. The 40-page book will be called "Year of the Jungle," based on the time in Vietnam served by Collins' father, a career Air Force officer.

"Year of the Jungle" is her first book since 2010's "Mockingjay," the last of "The Hunger Games" trilogy that made Collins an international sensation. More than 50 million copies of the "Hunger Games" books are in print and the first of four planned movies has grossed more than $600 million worldwide since being released out in March.

Collins' next project will be intended for ages 4 and up, a younger audience than those who have read, and re-read, her dystopian stories about young people forced to hunt and kill each other. But "Year of the Jungle" will continue, in a gentler way, the author's exploration of war. James Proimos, an old friend from her days as a television writer who helped persuade Collins to become a children's author, illustrated the book.

Time to commence “the Obama Games”!

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:55:00 +0000

Overview
Congratulations! Big fan. Look, I know you're busy. The fiscal cliff, Afghanistan, your recipes Pinterest, immigration, climate change, walking Bo -- we get it, you've got a lot on your mind. We're completely behind you. Solving America's tough problems will take months of hard work, though, and we need something from you right now. When I say "instant," you say "gratification." Instant! (I'm going to assume you said it.) We've been glued to this election for over two years -- nervously vibrating to a wobbly pitch of hope and fear. We need to come down, and not all of us live in Colorado. While you're facing all of our challenges, we're suffering a crippling intellectual and emotional attention deficit left behind by the election. I have an idea. Hear me out, because I made a few jokes on Twitter that obviously turned the election in your favor so I think you owe me. I see you nodding.

Dumb tweet of the day

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 23:11:00 +0000

Fans of the YA sensation Hunger Games had high hopes, only to be let down, when they learned that the "Girl on Fire" trending on Twitter was about Alicia Keys's new album.

wait.. so the Girl on Fire trend isn't about The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen? OH.

— #WelcomeBackZayn ღ (@iWizardStyles) August 23, 2012

Better than “Hunger Games”?

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Ever since the release of the 1932 pre-Code classic “The Most Dangerous Game," hunting humans for sport has been one of the world’s oldest movie pastimes. It allows the audiences to have it both ways: to feel superior to the craven fictional thrill-seekers who implement these hunts, and viscerally partake in the same process.

The genesis of the dangerous game that drives “The Hunger Games” is somewhat more complicated. It is the end product of a true cultural Cuisinart. Some point to the Japanese novel and film “Battle Royale”; others to the over-the-top Italian movie “The Tenth Victim,” based on Robert Sheckley’s 1953 short story. Then, there is Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Richard Dawson’s greatest hit “The Running Man,” or Stephen King’s other futuristic nightmare, “The Long Walk.”

“The Hunger Games” vs. “Twilight”

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:01:00 +0000

Is Katniss Everdeen the antidote to Bella Swan? That's a question guaranteed to irk fans of "The Hunger Games," Suzanne Collins' trilogy of dystopian young-adult novels, the latest of which, "Mockingjay," has currently captured the No. 1 spot on the nation's bestseller lists. "Hunger Games" fans don't appreciate seeing Collins' far more sober and ambitious books likened to "Twilight," Stephenie Meyer's swoony vampire romances. Too bad, because so much about "The Hunger Games," from its crossover success with adults to the crowds who packed bookstores when "Mockingjay" went on sale at midnight on Aug. 24 to its teenage narrator with her tangled love life, prompts the comparison.