Cool News
Jena Malone Volunteers As Tribute For CATCHING FIRE!!
The Kidd here...
Jena Malone is heading to Panem for the second chapter of THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, having been offered the role of Johanna Mason, the former District 7 winner of a previous Hunger Games, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Every 25 years, former victors are called upon to compete once more, and with CATCHING FIRE revolving around the 75th version of the Games, it leads to characters such as Mason to enter the arena again. Her relationship with Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen begins as adversarial before evolving into something much more resembling an alliance of sorts against the Capitol.
Oh, and she swings a mean axe.
Zoe Aggeliki was also in the running for the snarky role, but director Francis Lawrence has elected to go with the snark and athleticism of Malone, who was last seen on the big screen in last year's SUCKER PUNCH as Rocket.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
Follow me on Twitter.
Readers Talkback
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Do plot details count as a spoiler if they're taken from the book on which a movie was based?
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July 3, 2012, 4 p.m. CST
Every set number of years comes a deadlier tournament... And our hero just happens to be caught in it!
by D.Vader
Sounds just like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Seriously? The biggest champion (in maybe ever) gets caught up in the once every set number of years deadly tournament? That's the sequel? Oy....
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July 3, 2012, 4:01 p.m. CST
Does this mean older champions like Haymitch can be called to fight again?
by D.Vader
That's wholly unfair.
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"Every 25 years, former victors are called upon to compete once more..." isn't true. There is a twist in the games every 25 years, the twist at the 75th games is to reap the Tributes from previous Victors, as a plot device to get Peta and Katniss back into the arena. The 25th and 50th games had different twists. They'll probably screw the adaptation up anyway. The Hunger Games novel wasn't amazing but it was better than the movie by a long, long way.
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Yes Haymitch can be called up to fight, and he does. But Peta volunteers to take his place. And it is REALLY convenient, I agree, but it is implied in the book that it is set up that way deliberately to kill Katniss. Although it coincidentally being a 25th anniversary is a stretch on it's own.
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Billy, Every 25 years the Capital has a quarter quell (Hunger Games) with special rules. There were only 2 quarter quells prior to Katniss' games (the 25th and 50th). Haymitch was in the 50th where they had double the number of tributes (in the 25th they were elected by their district). The 75th games are the 1st time a winner has had to go back in. Every quarter quell does NOT bring back old tributes. This is spoiler info for those who haven't read the 2nd book and haven't seen the second movie. They also don't know that Katniss and Johanna wind up being friends until book 3. Please check your facts and offer spoiler warnings.
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The third book sucks. **END SPOILER**
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Agreed. As per my posts. They're quite big spoilers too.
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Should be played by Kristen Bell. Right, too many posts now.
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IMO.
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July 3, 2012, 4:32 p.m. CST
Hunger Games books are for 8th grade girls on a 5th grade reading level
by Rupee88
And the movies aren't much better.
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July 3, 2012, 4:44 p.m. CST
rupee88. As a 5th grade girl with an 8th grade reading level, I take offense to that.
by adeceasedfan
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is Hungers Games in the same league?
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July 3, 2012, 5:07 p.m. CST
d.vader - old victors are forced back into the arena, some as drunks/druggies
by F This
And yes, in some cases they are slaughtered and it does suck for them.
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July 3, 2012, 5:14 p.m. CST
not much of a stretch in getting Francis Lawrence, however I've faith he'll do better than the piss poor job of the last director...
by Squinty CGI Flynn
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July 3, 2012, 5:15 p.m. CST
Strangely enough, this is exactly who I pictured when reading the books.
by BlackBauer0320
Good bit of casting.
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One woman was meant to play Johanna, and that's Kristen Bell. Are you fucking kidding me, Lionsgate? I'd rather have Kristen STEWART as Johanna than this has-been indie washed-up actress.
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Simply put, yes. That's probably the most disappointing element that got lost in the adaptation, and the main reason why the movie never elevated above "pretty good."
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It's clear from reading Catching Fire that the change (from new candidates to having prior ones return) is a ruse President Snow pulled out of his ass. It's the only way they can take out Katniss, who has become the face of the rising rebellion. There is no evidence that anyone ever heard of this plan before Snow announced it, certainly not "every 25 years." Makes it all the creepier.
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You're right, the third book sucks... because like most trilogies, it needed to be three times the size of the first one to wrap up all the loose ends, or become 2-3 more books. It's clear to me that the author was limited in her contract to producing three books of set size (ain't it great when marketing trumps literary quality) and she had to cram the story elements in, breezing over things in a paragraph that deserved whole chapters, if not whole books.
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FACT
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July 3, 2012, 6:10 p.m. CST
"Every 25 years, former victors are called upon to compete once more, and with CATCHING FIRE revolving around the 75th version of the Games..."
by Jonathan
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July 3, 2012, 6:12 p.m. CST
"Every 25 years, former victors are called upon to compete once more, and with CATCHING FIRE revolving around the 75th version of the Games..."
by Jonathan
This statement is false. Why comment on something like this if you haven't read the books? Better to just leave out details than to make them up. >_<
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you have an author who stole all her ideas for the first book...promised the publisher a trilogy, realized she didnt have a clue for the second book, so rehashed the first book...with older people so there goes the whole...it came from greek myth bullshit
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hunger games isnt even in the same league as roller ball...which didnt need 3 films to tell you what you figured out at the end of the movie, that jonathen represented individualism and rebellion and the corporations were going to fall this is the twilightification of many great novels that came before collins is a hack tv writer
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Every 25 years there is a special hunger games and the capital manipulates this one to try and take out katniss again I realize you aren't 'journalists' (or even remotely talented writers) but as geeks, please, read the fucking book or shut up so you don't embarrass yourself. Can't wait until you gobslobber over comic-con instead of acknowledging that comic-con is no longer relevant for geeks Gotta keep your clicks up
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Did you guys even carry the news?
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There I said it.
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Seriously. What do you think was better? SuckerPunch??
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My boner springs into action the minute I see a photo of her. Saying she is the least hot of the Sucker Punch Girls means nothing, since every one of them is a hard-on's dream.
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Nice to see here again on the big screen but hard to shake the memory of her haunting role in Donnie Darko.
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I get that it's idiotic to come to any forum and expect to be spoiler free, but usually that means the comments. I didn't expect the main article to have a major plot point which doesn't happen till mid-book to come up. I read the book, but there are people that prefer to hold off reading the book series till after the movies.
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May luck be ever in our favor that one day there will be an error free article by the Kidd.
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July 3, 2012, 9:13 p.m. CST
spoilers??? its based on a fucking book...just like the last one
by walt
and the only stuff they took out of the first book was all the bullshit about food and clothes
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know any writers? what else have you read in novel form that is done in first person? any scifi where a world and a culture have to be described? half way through the first book, i gave up pure shite for the kiddie masses
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in that photo shoot a few months back. She's weird and way too skinny, but somehow very sexy.
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July 3, 2012, 10:17 p.m. CST
She looks Hungry alright. Jenna, eat something, we'd still love you.
by Zurge
Maybe I'm the one hungry for Jenna. JK.
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You just know she has oral talents.
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Not even close, imo.
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im starting to wonder if the people who write the "reviews" for this site even bother to watch or read the things they are "reviewing" twats
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Having written reviews for a publication, I can promise you that sometimes a reviewer will pretend to see a movie and write a review based on what they've heard or expect. I did that with Mel Gibson's The Patriot. Something came up and I couldn't make it to the film, but my review was due. So I just faked it and you know what? It turned out to be pretty accurate. I saw the movie the next day, a little worried I'd messed up, but it was nearly exactly what I wrote. That's how predictable some movies are. Yes, really, I'm a writer, even though I come off here mostly as a fucking jerk. This is therapy for me man. I play an adult in real life.
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No, that's CATCH A FIRE.
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I thought The Hunger Games were all about teens in a Running Man/Battle Royale style fight to the death. Reminds me of how in the old school 90210 you had dudes like Luke Perry aged approx. 25-30 playing a teenager.
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"I thought The Hunger Games were all about teens in a Running Man/Battle Royale style fight to the death." Not in the second book. She's pretty much exactly the age she's supposed to be in the movie.
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When reading the books, I didn't have a particular actress in mind, but did have an idea of what Johanna looked like. When I saw that Jena Malone would be cast in the role, it just clicked. She looks the part and can play the part well. As for the books and the first movie (spoiler warning): To give you a background on my experience with The Hunger Games, I saw the movie first not knowing anything about the movie going in. I hadn't even read or seen anything about it, much, beyond seeing the trailer once and a few spots on TV. I happened to have the chance to see it opening weekend, and was curious to see what it was all about. I loved the movie so much that I decided to read the books, as I couldn't wait to see what happened. I flew through the books (something I don't normally do) and enjoyed them very much. I didn't get the complaints about the movie. While reading the first book, I don't remember much that was cut out. I think a lot of the problem is that you lose that first person POV, so you do lose some of what makes the book, having to do with Katniss's thoughts and thus losing some of the fear, moral issues, and other things that made the story deeper. I also think that a lot of what people complain about not being in the movie was from the other books. The first book really wasn't that violent (no more than the movie), and a lot of the deeper meanings and story depth come later on in the books. I think people who have read all the books may have a hard time separating what they know is ahead for the characters and get those feelings mixed up, thinking it should all be in the first movie. It's kind of like getting into the later Harry Potter books/movies and then going back to the first wondering why it isn't darker (I know I have a hard time with the first few Harry Potters because of that). As for having another Hunger Games in the second book, I started to groan a bit when I got to that point, thinking that the author was just trying to repeat the first book. But once I finished it, I was OK with it, and there was a lot more going on that we don't know about until the end that makes it all work. And as for people's complaints about the third book, I rather enjoyed the ending. Was it ideal? No. Was it a tidy ending? No. But that's what made it so great. I had several other ideas how the story would end, but I thought the ending worked great. Some say the big death made it all pointless, but I thought it brought heaviness to it all. I was a bit thrown off when things were building up to a climax, then the action suddenly stopped and we are taken out of it and back to the hospital. But that's one of the downfalls of a first person POV, and having had Katniss been the one who captured/killed Snow, it would have been too predicatable and formulaic, and we would probably have lost the deeper meaning of the ending. How it ended brought in a lot of "who can you trust" and "who is good and who isn't". It was an idea of how so many governments are overthrown (or officials voted out) only to be replaced with someone just as bad if not worse. It wasn't meant to have a happy ending, yet there still is a bit of happiness amidst the gloom. It wasn't completely tidy and perfect, but it wasn't completely tragic, either.
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(and failed attempts at Spiderwick, Eragon, Percy Jackson, etc.) Are we ever going to escape this YA hell? Though I did like Lemony Snicket.
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Guessing she's not going to get naked in the movie like she did in the book.
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In that kind of girl next door that will most likely kill you in your sleep some day way.
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At best a midlevel romcom wannabe. Why would anyone choose her to headline a major blockbuster?
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If Kristen Bell were cast she wouldn't be headlining a major blockbuster, exactly. Johanna Mason is just 1 of 24 tributes who isn't involved in much of the book. I think I pictured Kristen Bell as Johanna when I was reading Catching Fire as Johanna is similar to her character from HEROES.
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July 5, 2012, 2:27 a.m. CST
First off, Kristen Bell was built in a Barbie factory for cheap, watered-down Kathy Griffin-level roles in wasted rom-com holiday stinkers. Secondly...
by REMcycle
...the foundation Jena's wearing above has WAY too much yellow. That makeup artist needs to be shot in a big way.
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Was considering reading Twilight at one point but have fully opted out (haven't seen the movies so this is admittedly unfair but I don't think I'm missing much)...but the Hunger Games is something else or more of the same? I couldn't care less if it's YA or not - I thoroughly enjoyed all the Potter books and movies...even the early more "kiddie" aspects... But I haven't seen nor read anything from the Hunger Games universe - is it worth taking the time? I'm just about to start Martin's books after falling head over for Game of Thrones - love getting "spoilers" directly from the novelized source and all that...so, all in all, Hunger Games good books or no? on the surface, it sounds a bit absurd to have a tiny portion of the country getting a much larger portion of the country to willingly sacrifice their children in a "game" for potentially becoming a part of the "better" half of the country - with the present context as a start, it occurs to me that revolution/rebellion would have occurred long before there was even a "games" to be held. even if it meant EVERYBODY not rich died in the process. To put it simply: I'd happily fight and die a million times over rather than sacrifice my child for the entertainment of the "haves" and I know I'm not alone. But a good writer could still make it work - King did it in a slightly different manner with "Long Walk", etc., so it's not impossible to do...I'm guessing HG succeed on that level at least, yes?
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Sure. There was nothing 'kiddie' about these books to me. They were a quick read, so no harm really. I finished the first two in a day each. The YA aspect didn't really materialize for me, much like the latter Potter books. However I don't think this series is in the same league as HP. If Twilight is anything like the movie, I would avoid at all costs. Worse than bad...boring.
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