November 10th, 2011 | 1:53 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

The Top 5 Reveals We Want From The Hunger Games Full Trailer

Cancel your surgery and tell your kids to drive themselves to preschool: the Hunger Games trailer is set to premiere Monday, November 14 on Good Morning America sometime during the 8:00am hour. Josh Hutcherson will introduce the clip (shortly before he has his clothes torn off by howling fans), and the trailer will even be playing on a Jumbotron in Times Square, in case you needed a reason to be screaming Liam Hemsworth‘s name in front of the M&M store. While the Hunger Games teaser trailer offered some hints about the film in August, we are hoping the full trailer will give us more details about a few things, such as:

  • The Cornucopia: Once we see the Cornucopia shining in the sun, we know the Games are on. So much delicious food, so many deadly weapons…so little time.
  • Peeta declaring his crush on Katniss: Okay, sure, the “star-crossed lovers” relationship might be semi-manufactured to capture the hearts and minds of a bleak dystopia, but we’ve seen Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. We know Jen is going to make that emotion look real.
  • The mutants: Guys, there has not nearly been enough hype about the bizarro animals, or muttations, that we have to look forward to during the Games. Wolf beasts with human eyes? Yes. Please.
  • The fashion: Almost as awesome as the sure-to-be-disturbing tracker jackers, we’d love a glimpse of Effie Trinket’s amazing wigs, Caesar Flickerman’s powder blue eyelids or Cinna’s anything.
  • The girl on fire: Here’s hoping we get a sneak peek of Katniss consumed in (synthetic) flame. If that doesn’t bring non-fans on board, nothing will.

What about you? What are you hoping we peep this coming Monday?

[Photo: Collider]

November 2nd, 2011 | 2:36 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Hunger Games Stars Talk Dirt, Knives And Bears In Vanity Fair


From what we’ve seen online of the Hunger Games feature for the December issue of Vanity Fair, the magazine didn’t get a ton of new scoop on the movie (or, very likely, they’re saving the good stuff for the newsstands). What they did get was a spectacular photo shoot with the cast. We’re particularly amused by the black-and-white pic of Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth lying in the grass and looking like an outtake from a Vampire Diaries poster.

The other thing that stands out to us, both from the interview
with Jennifer and the fun interactive cast guide, is how much everyone wants to convince us that this is a movie about kids killing kids. Check out these quotes:

Jennifer (Katniss), on the most difficult part of filming: “The fact that it didn’t feel like filming a movie. When we were filming in the woods, it didn’t have that Hollywood gloss — it was real snakes, real bears, and really scenes of running up and down a mountain for 13 hours.”

Liam (Gale): “I’d heard about how popular the books were, but I wasn’t quite aware of how dark and gritty the story was. It started me thinking and asking questions like, Could something like this actually happen to us one day?”
Read more…

October 27th, 2011 | 4:26 pm by Sabrina Rojas Weiss (@shalapitcher)

Hunger Games Posters: An In-Depth Eye-Shadow Analysis


Well, no one’s on fire and no one is being stung by tracker jackers, but we’re sure Hunger Games fans are buzzing with excitement about the eight new posters showcasing the eight main characters. After you’ve calmed yourselves down a bit, let’s take another look at these profiles:

Katniss (debuted on Yahoo! Movies): She looks a bit softer than I picture the tough District 12 tribute — like the camera caught her thinking about her mother and Prim back home. But there’s still something to the set of her jaw that hints at her unfailing strength. Also, very subtle how they made Katniss face to the right while all the others face to the left.

Peeta: As our friend Amy at Hollywood Crush (where this poster debuted) says, “Peeta appears determined and yet somehow vulnerable, all at the same time. (Not to mention he looks so young, right?!)” He certainly doesn’t look like a kid who’s ever fought for his own survival, like Katniss has.

Read more…

October 12th, 2011 | 11:30 am by Lauren Olson (Deiman)

Josh Hutcherson’s Top 19 Hottest Looks

Josh Hutcherson‘s been doing the acting thing since age 10, though not until his impressive performance in The Kids Are All Right and then landing the coveted role of Peeta Mellark in the much-anticipated Hunger Games series did he hit our radar. Come March, this rising star is likely to catapult to Robert Pattinson-level fame, so get a jump-start on your fangirl game and celebrate his 19th birthday by checking out his 19 hottest looks. [Photos: Getty Images, Lionsgate]

August 8th, 2011 | 3:45 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

Peeta And Katniss Look Beat But Not Defeated In New Hunger Games Images

Let The Hunger Games…continue! After Lionsgate released several stills last week featuring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsorth getting gritty for HG, the studio has released a few more Hunger Games images. Between Katniss’s bow and blood spatters, we’d say we are officially in the Arena. Meanwhile, Peeta looking like…well, he looks like he’s very casually on the process of getting hacked apart by a sword. Below, we’ve added them to our ever-growing Hunger Games gallery. At this rate by next spring you’ll practically have a flip-book of the entire movie.

While we’re sure the the first film, set for release on March 23, 2012, is enough to tide us over until the movie’s sequel,  The Hollywood Reporter says Catching Fire’s release date isn’t until November 22, 2013. Since the series is reportedly a quadrilogy, we could have sequels too look forward to until 2016. After that, we’ll enter into the same despair spiral we entered into after The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 came out. And so the cycle continues.

[Photo: Lionsgate]

August 4th, 2011 | 4:50 pm by Halle Kiefer (@hallekiefer)

Hunger Games Stills Give You More Peeta And Gale, Delicious Bread

These Hunger Games stills make us soooo excited to see the movie, and soooo hungry for a delicious slice of sourdough bread. Which one do we want more? It’s soooo hard to tell. After Entertainment Weekly premiered Peeta and Gale on their cover last week, Lionsgate released hi-res versions of the images depicting our major players; Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss and Liam Hemsworth as Gale chat in the woods, while Josh Hutcherson as Peeta mournfully stands besides his family’s bakery. The photos might not reveal any major details, but they at least give a good sense of atmosphere and set design. Plus, there’s the emotional component: we’d be brooding too if we had to eat a loaf that was all burnt like that.

[Photo: Lionsgate]

 

July 27th, 2011 | 3:50 pm by Lauren Olson (Deiman)

Ladies And Gents: Here Are Your Gale And Peeta

It’s been over two months since we swooned over Entertainment Weekly‘s big reveal of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, and now they’ve whipped out the big guns (literally) and given us a sneak peek of Liam Hemsworth as Gale and Josh Hutcherson as Peeta.
EW sat down with The Hunger Games‘ handsome duo and got the deets on the first six weeks of filming. Most interestingly, the two actors whose characters battle for the heart of Katniss have become fast friends in real life – so fast that Hutcherson has already brought Hemsworth home to Kentucky to meet the fam! Precious!
What do you think, Hunger Games devotees?

[Source: Entertainment Weekly]

July 18th, 2011 | 5:04 pm by Kate Spencer (@katespencer)

The Hunger Games Book Club: The Five Biggest Winners And Losers From THG

We’ve reached the end of our Hunger Games Book Club (sniff) and we’re here to bring you our final book report before we drift off into the sunset and into the arms of Catching Fire. Let’s recap what goes down at the end of the Games: The muttations attack! They kill Cato! The Capitol revokes the rule saying both District players can win! Katniss and Peeta go to kill themselves but before they do The Games end! They continue to fake their relationship and…they leave the door open for Book 2. So where does that leave us? Wanting more, obviously.

We all know The Hunger Games is about landing on top — so who are the Biggest Winners and Losers from the first book of the series? Let’s count ‘em off.

WINNERS

1. Peeta: He lived! He proved himself to be smarter than anyone thought, including himself. And he got the girl — kinda. Regardless, he solidified himself as the dreamiest pushover in Panem.
2. Katniss: She won the Games — not just for herself and her sister, but for her entire District. Being the mockingjay is a ton of pressure, yes. But is it worth it? YES.
3. Haymitch: The drunk redeemed himself with an impeccable strategy, but only because he had the talent to make it happen. Still, he proved himself to be somewhat lovable — when not acting like the lush that he is.
4. Cinna: Hey may just be a fictional stylist, but the image overall he gave Katniss is the stuff Hollywood dreams are made of. (Lindsay Lohan could stand to find herself a real life Cinna right about now.)
5. District 11: Though Thresh and Rue both died, they were among the most noble fighters in The Games. Classy always wins.

Read more…

July 14th, 2011 | 2:00 pm by Kate Spencer (@katespencer)

The Hunger Games Book Club: Five Reasons Peeta Has Our Heart

We’re almost at the end of our Hunger Games Book Club,  and for our second to last installment we’re celebrating everything we love about Peeta. In chapters 19-22 Katniss stumbles upon her frenemy camouflaged like dirt and dealing with a massive leg wound. They begin to trust each other and fight for their mutual survival, with a strategy that involves fake romance…except that their feelings may just be real after all. The boy with the bread all but owns this section,  so let’s toast his sweet, loving ways, shall me? (Next week we finish up with Chapters 23-27!)

1. Peeta is suddenly sexy..and an ally. He asks Katniss, “You here to finish me off, sweetheart?” (Page 252)  when she discovers him hidden by camouflage. Who knew a baker’s son could be so charming while half-dead? Hint to all the fellas out there: don’t talk to us until you’ve got a gash on a leg and a smile on your face. That’s how we’ll know you’re worth our time.

Read more…

July 5th, 2011 | 5:02 pm by Kate Spencer (@katespencer)

The Hunger Games Book Club Week 6: Rue Dies, We Cry

Here we are, drying our weepy eyes as we offer up this latest installment of our Hunger Games Book Club. This week we are covering the events surrounding Rue’s death (Chapters 17-18), and all the “holy s**t!” things that go down. Let the recap begin — but first let us dry our eyes.

1. RIP RUE. The little songbird’s death is the most crushing moment in the entire book for us. It was naive of us to ever think she and Katniss could both survive, but admit it — you were wishing for that to happen too. We’re currently counting the months until we get to witness Jennifer Lawrence (as Katniss) singing over Rue’s dying form as she places wildflowers around her. Oh the tears we will cry into our buttery popcorn.

2. OMG YOU GUYS KATNISS AND PEETA CAN BOTH LIVE!!! Writing in all caps hardly conveys the excitement we feel over this news, no matter how manipulative the move is on the Capitol’s part.

Read more…