The Hunger Games movie has been cast (but just the main trio though)...
I’m absolutely thrilled about it because a) She CAN ACT (as seen in Winter’s Bone- Her character is actually very similar to Katniss’s in the movie, and she’s gotten numerous awards/nominations/*Oscar nomination for Best Actress* for the role), b) She went through a grueling audition with Gary Ross, the film’s director, and she passed, so obviously she captured Katniss pretty well, and c) Suzanne Collins thinks she’s awesome.
The good news is that when I read about casting is that I didn’t cry out/scream “What?!!!!” like I did when the Percy Jackson movie casting was released a couple years ago. My first thought was, “Okay, this can work."
And after thinking about it for a while (and seeing fan art), I believe that it actually can.***
I actually don’t know anything about Liam except for the fact that he acted besides Miley Cyrus in the Last Song and I haven’t seen that, so I can’t say anything about his acting, but I think he has the-Gale-look. He’s tall, lean-ish, has a rugged look about him, and I can totally imagine him with black hair, leather-soled boots, hunting gear, and squirrels and rabbits strapped to his belt and around his shoulders, and walking around looking a bit solemn. (And he and Jennifer Lawrence look like cousins! Yay!)
Now about Josh Hutcherson...It’s been amusing, but a little bit more shocking/disturbing to see all the hate he’s been getting (more than the other cast members) because he’s Peeta and not Hunter Parrish or Alex Pettyfer. So I really wanted Hunter to get the role, but for more superficial reasons. (I mean, he LOOKS THE PART already.) But thinking about it now, I'm really happy that Josh got the role, even though he doesn't look like Peeta, who by the way (to non-Hunger Games fans), looks like this:
Thoughts, complaints, revelations, etc about the Hunger Games movie or something of the sort? Write away below in the comments. :D
*Hey HG Makeup Crew! *Waves* If you guys are reading this somehow, you know I’ve put a lot of expectations on you. Sorry about that, but you will be able to change JH’s hair right? And make sure his hair is falling over his forehead in waves right? Because that’s sort of important to the HG fandom (*cough* and me *cough*). If you don’t change his hair, there’s going to be a lot of angry fans...
** Disclaimer #1: I am NOT JH’s agent who stole Nonie’s Blogger account to put her client in a positive light or a devoted JH fangirl (definitely NOT the latter!). I just think he shouldn’t be judged so quickly and be given a chance. He won over Suzanne Collins (and Peeta’s her character), so who knows? Maybe by the time we see Josh in March, we'll all be saying,"Hunter Who?"
*** If the movie doesn’t turn out so well, and everyone ends up being horrible, then that just means I wasted the whole post (hopefully) boosting everyone's morale about it, but I actually think it’ll turn out well. I think Suzanne Collins being in the movie crew will mean that the movie will go in the right direction and it certainly looks like it is so far. :)
and it was announced back in March that Jennifer Lawrence will be playing Katniss Everdeen!
I’m absolutely thrilled about it because a) She CAN ACT (as seen in Winter’s Bone- Her character is actually very similar to Katniss’s in the movie, and she’s gotten numerous awards/nominations/*Oscar nomination for Best Actress* for the role), b) She went through a grueling audition with Gary Ross, the film’s director, and she passed, so obviously she captured Katniss pretty well, and c) Suzanne Collins thinks she’s awesome. Yes, I'm very excited to see her as Katniss. :D
Then, just last Monday, castings for Peeta and Gale came out! Peeta will be played by Josh Hutcherson (left), and Gale will be played by Liam Hemsworth:
Then, just last Monday, castings for Peeta and Gale came out! Peeta will be played by Josh Hutcherson (left), and Gale will be played by Liam Hemsworth:
And after thinking about it for a while (and seeing fan art), I believe that it actually can.***
I actually don’t know anything about Liam except for the fact that he acted besides Miley Cyrus in the Last Song and I haven’t seen that, so I can’t say anything about his acting, but I think he has the-Gale-look. He’s tall, lean-ish, has a rugged look about him, and I can totally imagine him with black hair, leather-soled boots, hunting gear, and squirrels and rabbits strapped to his belt and around his shoulders, and walking around looking a bit solemn. (And he and Jennifer Lawrence look like cousins! Yay!)
Now about Josh Hutcherson...It’s been amusing, but a little bit more shocking/disturbing to see all the hate he’s been getting (more than the other cast members) because he’s Peeta and not Hunter Parrish or Alex Pettyfer. So I really wanted Hunter to get the role, but for more superficial reasons. (I mean, he LOOKS THE PART already.) But thinking about it now, I'm really happy that Josh got the role, even though he doesn't look like Peeta, who by the way (to non-Hunger Games fans), looks like this:
JH is basically the exact opposite of who Peeta is physically. He’s got brown eyes instead of blue, really dark brown hair instead of blonde, and OMG his hair is definitely not falling in waves over his forehead. But who really looks like Peeta anyway except Hunter Parrish?
The good things about Josh: He's a little more stocky than the others, but that’s what Peeta’s described as right? Stocky not lean. Medium height. Strong enough to haul 100 lb flour bags arond. Soft-looking. Boyish. Not a pretty pretty boy. JH fits each requirement perfectly. All I have to say about his dark hair and brown eyes is that if the LOTR makeup crew transformed dark-brown haired Orlando Bloom into white-blonde haired Legolas convincingly, I have no doubt that the HG makeup crew will be able to do the same.* (There’s nothing a little Hollywood make-up and magic won’t fix!)
About his acting, I’ve seen Josh Hutcherson in almost every movie he’s been in (Zathura, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc) and he’s a great actor (which is probably why I’m not worried about his casting). He knows about emotions, he knows how to be charismatic, and he’s good with action sequences, so there's no way he won't be able to pull Peeta's role acting-wise. JH beat out Hunter and Pettyfer (and......everyone else who auditioned), so he was much better at being Peeta than everyone else. Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins both said that they knew that he’s perfect for Peeta, that he was their first choice, and that he had great chemistry with Jenn in the screen tests, and I believe them and I have faith in Josh. He wanted this role badly, and he got it, so we should give him a chance and see what he’ll do with the character.**
No director or author wants to purposefully ruin their story, and it sounds like the HG movie team is trying to make the best movie they can. The whole cast (so far) is enthusiastic about their characters and the series (especially Josh :P), they know how big this series is and how much responsibility just landed on their shoulders to get everything right, and since Gary Ross promised to dye each character’s hair their respective hair colors, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. So...thinking optimistically, JH, Jenn, and Liam will of course blow our minds away when we see the movie opening weekend March 2012 of course.***
The good things about Josh: He's a little more stocky than the others, but that’s what Peeta’s described as right? Stocky not lean. Medium height. Strong enough to haul 100 lb flour bags arond. Soft-looking. Boyish. Not a pretty pretty boy. JH fits each requirement perfectly. All I have to say about his dark hair and brown eyes is that if the LOTR makeup crew transformed dark-brown haired Orlando Bloom into white-blonde haired Legolas convincingly, I have no doubt that the HG makeup crew will be able to do the same.* (There’s nothing a little Hollywood make-up and magic won’t fix!)
About his acting, I’ve seen Josh Hutcherson in almost every movie he’s been in (Zathura, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc) and he’s a great actor (which is probably why I’m not worried about his casting). He knows about emotions, he knows how to be charismatic, and he’s good with action sequences, so there's no way he won't be able to pull Peeta's role acting-wise. JH beat out Hunter and Pettyfer (and......everyone else who auditioned), so he was much better at being Peeta than everyone else. Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins both said that they knew that he’s perfect for Peeta, that he was their first choice, and that he had great chemistry with Jenn in the screen tests, and I believe them and I have faith in Josh. He wanted this role badly, and he got it, so we should give him a chance and see what he’ll do with the character.**
No director or author wants to purposefully ruin their story, and it sounds like the HG movie team is trying to make the best movie they can. The whole cast (so far) is enthusiastic about their characters and the series (especially Josh :P), they know how big this series is and how much responsibility just landed on their shoulders to get everything right, and since Gary Ross promised to dye each character’s hair their respective hair colors, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. So...thinking optimistically, JH, Jenn, and Liam will of course blow our minds away when we see the movie opening weekend March 2012 of course.***
Meanwhile, we should trust Gary Ross's vision for the movie. He and his crew know more than us about what's going to happen. (Now I'm really excited about the trailer! :D)
Thoughts, complaints, revelations, etc about the Hunger Games movie or something of the sort? Write away below in the comments. :D
*Hey HG Makeup Crew! *Waves* If you guys are reading this somehow, you know I’ve put a lot of expectations on you. Sorry about that, but you will be able to change JH’s hair right? And make sure his hair is falling over his forehead in waves right? Because that’s sort of important to the HG fandom (*cough* and me *cough*). If you don’t change his hair, there’s going to be a lot of angry fans...
** Disclaimer #1: I am NOT JH’s agent who stole Nonie’s Blogger account to put her client in a positive light or a devoted JH fangirl (definitely NOT the latter!). I just think he shouldn’t be judged so quickly and be given a chance. He won over Suzanne Collins (and Peeta’s her character), so who knows? Maybe by the time we see Josh in March, we'll all be saying,"Hunter Who?"
*** If the movie doesn’t turn out so well, and everyone ends up being horrible, then that just means I wasted the whole post (hopefully) boosting everyone's morale about it, but I actually think it’ll turn out well. I think Suzanne Collins being in the movie crew will mean that the movie will go in the right direction and it certainly looks like it is so far. :)
P.S./Disclaimer #2: If the movie doesn't end up being too good, and you've raised your expectations about the movie because of this post, but are disappointed in March, then I am not to be blamed. Personal opinions are opinions of that person alone, and I am just stating mine. Heh.
Hehe, I love this post. I also can't wait to see who they cast for Haymitch (and Finnick for the later movies)!
ReplyDeleteWell the overall cast seems to be pretty good for the movie, at least better than the one for Percy Jackson. I hope the movie does well and doesn't alienate the readers of the book for the sake of attracting moviegoers who have not read the book. Still, it doesn't seem like my kind of movie, unlike Star Trek 2 or Bond 23. Mhmm.
ReplyDeletePriya: YES, Haymitch better be amazing. *bites nails nervously*
ReplyDeleteRishi: The HG cast is better than the Percy Jackson cast. :D And yeah, hopefully it'll be good. :)