A friend of mine recently convinced me that I needed to read Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series of young adult novels. Not being a young adult myself, I was a tad skeptical. I certainly have enjoyed plenty of young adult fiction in the recent past, including Harry Potter and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Having quickly finished the first two novels, I’m eager to start the third and finish this trilogy. It seems like more and more folks are jumping on board the bandwagon as news of a Hunger Games movie continues to mount. In fact, this week’s cover of Entertainment Weekly features the first picture of Jennifer Lawrence as main character Katniss Everdeen.
The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future where twelve districts reside in the ruins of the USA. Each year, a boy and a girl from each district are chosen via lottery and forced to compete in a cruel battle to the death called The Hunger Games. The winner becomes an instant celebrity, is showered with fame and fortune, and his or her district receives precious food and supplies.
There has been quite a bit of buzz lately about the first movie which is set to be directed by Gary Ross, whose previous credits include Seabiscuit and Pleasantville. Honestly, I’m a tad concerned. While Pleasantville (a personal favorite) and Seabiscuit were skillfully made films, they certainly weren’t action films with a ton of fight scenes and suspense. There’s a lot of attention on this movie, though, so I’m trusting that the producers are going to ensure a well made film. With that said, I’m a tad concerned with what recent history has shown when it comes to adapting popular young adult literature. It seems like studios have banked on the built in audience and haven’t exactly put their full force behind some of these films. The Twilight films certainly aren’t huge budget affairs, and based on the reviews, I Am Number Four fell flat.
There has been some ambivalence about the casting on The Hunger Games. I’ve heard from a few folks that they are concerned about the relatively well known names that have been cast in the film (including Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, and Stanley Tucci along with Lawrence). I take it as a good sign, though. I would be concerned if the movie was just filled with undiscovered talent. It means that the script has to be pretty decent to attract good quality talent, and that the studio is willing to put the money into the project to attract the talent. The only real complaint about the casting I have is about all the rumors. For weeks there was a lot of talk about John C. Reilly playing the role of Katniss’s drunken mentor Haymitch. Of course, as I was reading I couldn’t help but picture Reilly in the role. Then Harrelson was cast in the part and my imagination has been completely thrown off!
With all that being said, I’m really eager to see how the book translates to the screen. I’m curious about the script because so much of the book is internal dialogue from the narrator, Katniss. She spends a lot of time in the novel by herself, alone with her thoughts. There is not a tremendous amount of dialogue. I’m curious to see how that will play out on the big screen. There’s certainly going to be plenty of action to make a fun movie. If everything goes well, we’ll get three great movies!
Have you read the Hunger Games trilogy? Are you looking forward to the movie? What do you think of the casting?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on May 22, 2011 @ 20:00 EST5EDT
I read the books awhile ago and was excited when I first heard about the movie. Now, I’m not quite as excited because they aged up the main characters. I worry that will diminish the impact of the story.
I hope they accurately show the cruelty from the book and don’t tame it down too much.
Regardless, I’ll be there to see at least the first movie. And, if they change anything … I hope they change the ending to the trilogy (which may be the first time I’ve ever wanted that to happen).
Are they aging them up? I know the actors are older than the 17-18 year old characters, but actors playing younger is not anything new.
In this case, the age of the characters is critical to the storytelling. Katniss is supposed to be 16, but she will be played by a 20/21 year old. That’s a big difference. It could work, but I would have preferred they cast younger actors that looked like kids.
I want them to change the end too! I thought it was absolutely pathetic.
I really hope they stick to the book as much as possible, although it will be difficult in some aspects, I’m sure they’ll be aiming for a 12A audience so a lot of violence will have to be missed out.
It’s a shame the cast are so much older, it is essentially a book about being forced to grow up very quickly but how are they going to do that with actors who have already grown up?
Fingers crossed they do a good job.
When I read the books, I wondered how they could make them into movies because of the violence. It is interesting that it is ok for kids/young adults to read about it, but ratings wise they can’t put the exact same thing on screen.
Hopefully, they aren’t trying for a PG movie. The book really should be translated into a PG-13 movie.
I can’t wait to see this film, when Josh Hutcherson was first announced to play Peeta Mellark, I was devastated, I hated the idea. Now I can really see him playing the part well. I’m sure the same thing will happen with Woody!
ugh, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta! I can’t see it, I just can’t see it,I feel like he should be Gale and Liam should be Peeta. Oh well, I guess we’ll see; one thing is for sure, if they tone down the violence too much then they will lose the essence of the book…hope that doesn’t happen.
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