In this week’s ‘Hunger’-focused episode of ‘Talk Nerdy,’ we compare the soon-to-be-released film to Suzanne Collins’ novel. By Josh Wigler Jennifer Lawrence in “The Hunger Games” Photo: Lionsgate “The Hunger Games” are upon us at last. In the land of Panem, this would not be news worth celebrating. In our day and age of modern movie-going, however, the arrival of Gary Ross’ cinematic take on Suzanne Collins’ dystopian novel is anything but bad. Indeed, “The Hunger Games” is more than “not bad” — it’s great. It might even be exceptional. In fact, I’m ready to call it: Respectfully, I strongly feel the “Hunger Games” movie is better than the “Hunger Games” book. Before you kill me, hear me out, and I’ll try to walk you through my reasons.
‘It’s the greatest movie of all time,’ actress declares to MTV News. By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Elizabeth Banks at the “Hunger Games” premiere Photo: Getty Images As an enormous fan of “The Hunger Games,” Elizabeth Banks got to live out any book lover’s dream by starring in the film adaptation. The end result, in Banks’ objective opinion, was nothing short of the best movie ever. “Totally unbiased, as if I was just off the street: It’s the greatest movie of all time,” she declared. “It’s really good.” Banks spoke with MTV News’ Josh Horowitz about her emotional experience making the film and the real-life inspiration for her portrayal of Effie Trinket. Spoilers ahead. After seeing the completed film, one of the scenes that stuck out for Banks was Rue’s funeral, shortly after she’s killed in the Games. “I always knew that Rue’s funeral would be amazing. I mean, it’s one of my favorite parts of the book,” Banks said. “I think everybody loves the relationship between Katniss and Rue, and her funeral is exactly how I imagined it, just really beautiful. That she sings to her is amazing, and it’s so emotional. It’s a five-hanky moment. There’s some serious bawling happening by dudes in the theater.” Being a part of the actual filming of the story didn’t make watching the final product any less emotional for Banks. Even she couldn’t help but shed a few tears. “When watching it, I totally cried. I cried making the movie, seriously,” Banks said. “When we were shooting the Reaping, and the very first time Jennifer [Lawrence] came out and said, ‘I volunteer. I volunteer.’ I think it was rehearsal; we weren’t even shooting yet. I was like, ‘That’s the most amazing thing.’ ” As with all adaptations of books, not everything can be as the reader imagines. But Banks said that made “The Hunger Games” even better. “There were a couple things that weren’t how I pictured it, but I’m not even sure that I pictured Effie’s hair the way Effie’s hair ultimately ended up being, but I love everything,” she said. “It was better than what I thought. That’s what I loved about it. There were a lot of things that were a lot cooler than I thought they’d be.” To bring Effie to life, Banks worked closely with crew to create a truly unique villainess. As it turns out, the secrets to Effie’s origins lie in Hollywood history. “I had amazing collaborators, first of all, Gary Ross. Gary said, in his mind’s eye, he always imagined Effie’s face was like Joel Grey in ‘Cabaret.’ If you remember, he had really white skin, cracked and messed up, just kind of grotesque,” Banks explained. “Because Effie’s a villain, we really wanted her to be a little villainous in that way, so that was our jumping-off point.” Similarly, Banks owed the inspiration for Effie’s theatrical voice to one of the screen’s most iconic leading ladies. “[The voice] was very much inspired by Rosalind Russell ‘s ‘Auntie Mame.’ I really felt like Effie is everyone’s ‘Auntie Mame,’ just an outrageous person who says all of the wrong things and has all these crazy friends and lives a very extravagant lifestyle that’s beyond her,” Banks said. “She’s one of my favorite performers, and it’s one of my favorite performances. She just has that great New York Broadway accent in the film, so that was my jumping-off point for Effie.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Hunger Games’ Related Photos ‘Hunger Games’ World Premiere Red Carpet The Hunger Games
“Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?” Zing! Still a true master . Related: Irrelevant blob Newt Gingrich is upset. [ TPM via @raypride ]
It’s probably one of the best ways to work through your failed celebrity marriage: Air all your dirty laundry in a thinly veiled dance-pop ditty from your hawt new album! Which is what Madonna seemingly does in her new song, “I Don’t Give A,” which Guy Ritchie is listening to somewhere, shaking his head. Sample lyrics: “You were so mad at me / Who’s got custody / Lawyers / Suck it up / Didn’t have a prenup.” OUCH. Let the divorce therapy rip! More lyrics: “Wake up ex wife / This is your life / Children / On your own / Turning on the telephone” “Messages / managers / no time for a manicure / work it out / shake my ass / I know how to multi-task” “I tried to be a good girl / I tried to be your wife / Diminished myself / and I swallowed my light” Eh, I give Madge points for getting Nicki Minaj on her track, even if her best lines are about rejecting shoes from Aldo and co-opting Jay-Z’s “business, man” bit. The song itself is a little to Desperate Ex-Housewives for my tastes. Whatever happened to singing about lucky stars and sex and Black Jesus and stuff? Prenups? Custody? Yawn. [ Huffington Post ]
The BBC’s biopic The Girl aims to explore Alfred Hitchcock ‘s fascination with actress Tippi Hedren, and from the first image of Toby Jones as Hitch and Sienna Miller as his The Birds and Marnie muse this promises to be an intriguing watch. But mimicry/homage aside — as evidenced by the near-perfect recreation of Hitch & Hedren’s famous Birds promo photo — will The Gir l get everything right about their relationship? Like the fact that, as Hedren has been saying for years now, Hitch stalled her career because she turned him down? Hedren is a consultant on The Girl , one of two Hitchcock-centered features in the works (the other: Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho , with Anthony Hopkins and Scarlett Johansson), which is directed by Julian Jarrold ( Kinky Boots , Red Riding 1974 ). Still, the Daily Mail reports , Hedren is worried the film won’t depict the extremes to which she had to be strong in the face of Hitchcock’s dominance and sexual advances. “I admired Hitch tremendously for his great talent and still do,” she said. “Yet, at the same time, I loathed him for his off-set behavior and the way he came on to me sexually…He was a great director – and he destroyed it all by his behavior when he got me alone.” “There were so many wonderful films we could have made together but it was all thrown away because of his mindless lust…I was a highly moral girl. I couldn’t submit to him no matter that he threatened and did ruin my career.” Exactly how deep into the Hitch-Hedren symbiotic relationship The Girl will go remains to be seen, but it would appear Jarrold’s paying painstaking attention to detail to some degree; compare the above first image from The Girl with the vintage Birds promo shot it mimics, from the wrinkle in Hitch’s brow to Hedren’s perfect blonde ‘do. What’s different, beside the angle of the prop bird at their feet and the color of Hedren’s pumps? Jones’ and Miller’s expressions are decidedly not as forcedly sunny as those of their counterparts, and she sits angled away from the director, all of which suggests there’s more stormy unrest behind the scenes between the two than seen in the original picture. [ Daily Mail via The Playlist ]
Movie events have become deadly little things, highly mechanized gadgets thrown by studio marketing departments into an audience’s midst in advance; then we just stand around and wait for them to explode. The Hunger Games , adapted from the first of Suzanne Collins’ hugely successful trio of young adult novels, was decreed an event long before it became anything close to a movie: More than a year ago its studio, Lionsgate, launched a not-so-stealthy advertising campaign that made extensive use of social media to coax potential fans into convincing one another that they had to see this movie. The marketing was so nervily persuasive that you had to wonder: How could any movie – especially one that, as it turns out, is largely and surprisingly naturalistic, as opposed to the usual toppling tower of special effects – possibly hope to measure up? The surprise of The Hunger Games isn’t that it lives up to its hype – it’s that it plays as if that hype never even existed, which may be the trickiest achievement a big movie can pull off these days. The picture takes place in a dystopian future, in a dictatorship called Panem that’s a thinly disguised version what used to be the United States. Panem’s richest and most privileged citizens live in the capitol city – called, conveniently, Capitol – while everyone else toils away in the 12 outlying districts to provide everything those Capitol dwellers might need, from food to coal to luxury goods. At some point in Panem’s history, the underlings in the districts revolted, French Revolution-style. As punishment, each district must now offer up two of its youngsters between the ages of 12 and 18, a boy and a girl chosen by lottery, to compete in a televised yearly event called the Hunger Games. The young people, called Tributes, kill one another off in an elaborately controlled stadium environment until there’s just one left standing: That kid earns accolades for his or her home district – and, more importantly, food. As allegories go, this is a pretty obvious one, particularly in the era of the 99%, although neither Collins nor Gary Ross, director of the movie version, really needs to belabor the point: The focus, in the book and in the movie, is on the storytelling: If the larger ideas are pretty elephantine ones, at least they emerge from the story rather than obscure it with their meaty flanks. Jennifer Lawrence plays 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a denizen of the poorest section of Panem, District 12, which specializes in coal production – Katniss’ father, a miner, was killed in a mining accident, leaving the young woman to fend for the family by using her crackerjack archery skills to hunt game (illegally) in the nearby forest. When Katniss’ impossibly young and extremely fragile sister Prim is chosen to compete in the Hunger Games – the announcements are made on a national holiday known, creepily, as Reaping Day – Katniss steps forward as a volunteer, desperate to take Prim’s place. Her male counterpart is the baker’s son, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson, who played Laser, Annette Bening and Julianne Moore’s son in The Kids Are All Right ), and the complication, as you might guess, is that he’s been sort-of-secretly in love with Katniss since childhood. Now the two will be life-and-death adversaries, and Katniss’ mistrust of Peeta’s motives – complicated by her own confused affections, given her exceedingly independent nature – provides the movie with some strong but delicate bone structure. The Hunger Games may offer some reasonably effective metaphorical statements about class divisions in this country — and about the house-of-cards crassness of reality TV – but in the end, it works because of its deft handling of an even more universal theme: This is a movie about an independent-minded girl who just isn’t sure she can trust a boy, as true to the spirit of the Shirelles as it is to Greek myth. There’s action here, too, and a great deal of vitality that feels true both to the spirit of Collins’ book and to the idea of movie entertainment as it exists – or ought to exist – outside the framework of mere movie marketing. Ross previously brought us the 1998 Pleasantville , as well as the disappointingly perfunctory 2003 Seabiscuit , and there are ways in which The Hunger Games (whose script he adapted, along with Collins and Billy Ray) feels workmanlike instead of genuinely inventive. For one thing, Ross overuses the handheld camera, particularly in scenes that are supposed to be intimate and deeply emotional: When Katniss gets Prim ready for her first Reaping Day, she tucks in the tail of the little girl’s shirt with the kind of efficient tenderness that the best big sisters have in their DNA. The family lives in what appears to be a simple wooden house, if not a shack. In the book, Collins notes that District 12 is located in what used to be called Appalachia, and if the movie doesn’t stress that outright, it at least implies as much: Ross and cinematographer Tom Stern channel the mood of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange with their muted — though not blanched — color palette and austere compositions. (James Newton Howard wrote the movie’s restrained score, and there’s additional music by roots-music craftsman T. Bone Burnett, which tells you something about the picture’s commitment to capturing the aura of this distinctly American landscape.) Ross’ instincts are so good that you wonder, particularly in the District 12 scenes, why he didn’t just screw the camera into the damned tripod: The stillness would have been classical and elegant and better suited to the emotional tone and texture of this part of the story. Still, there’s so much in The Hunger Games that Ross gets right. He understands the nature of visual storytelling, trusting the audience to follow the narrative without spelling out every little thing in actual dialogue. He trusts us to pick up on telling details – for example, the lacy, little-girl anklets worn by the youngest Tribute, a sparkplug named Rue (played beautifully by a young actress named Amandla Stenberg), when she appears for her pre-competition televised interview. And The Hunger Games , mercifully, doesn’t suffer from overproductionitis. The picture, like the book it’s based on, has a number of fantastical elements – the glossy, gleaming futuristic edifices of the Capitol; a competition arena that resembles the natural world but can be controlled by technicians to create extra challenges for the participants, like rolling balls of fire and snarling creatures that are half-dog, half-lion. Even so, it relies mostly on a deceptively soothing kind of naturalism. These trees look like real trees; the sunlight certainly seems bright and strong. Their familiarity only adds to the story’s sense of menace, particularly when the going gets really ugly, as it inevitably does: At one point a crew of bloodthirsty Tributes surround a tree Katniss has climbed for safety, exhorting one of their members to “kill her.” The action in The Hunger Games is often a bit of a jumble – it’s sometimes hard to tell who’s coming from where. But Ross takes care to give the violence — which is discreet but visceral — the proper amount of weight. These are, after all, young people killing other young people. And one scene, in particular, conjures just the right level of Ophelia-floating-down-the-river grace — the simplest wildflowers become a kind of benediction. The picture makes room for a number of standout supporting actors: Stanley Tucci as an unctuous yet sympathetic games commentator; Elizabeth Banks as the fluttery, ineffectual official helper-outer Effie Trinket; Woody Harrelson as Katniss and Peeta’s boozy mentor; and Lenny Kravitz, sadly underused, as Cinna, who’s in charge of “styling” the District 12 entrants. (At one point in the pregame festivities, he puts Katniss in a dress whose fluttery, feathery skirt turns to fire as she twirls.) Wes Bentley has a turn as a smooth, unnerving semi-villain, and Donald Sutherland shows up as a malevolent elder statesman, a role he digs into with sly gusto. But Lawrence holds the real key to the effectiveness of The Hunger Games , and she plays Katniss as the best kind of fallible heroine. Hutcherson may be teen-heartthrob material – in other words, wholly nonthreatening — but he has the right amount of prickly sweetness to make the character of Peeta work: He can’t be too much of a sap, or you’d wonder what the hell Katniss sees in him. And as Lawrence plays her, Katniss – a sturdy girl, both physically and emotionally – deserves the best. There’s something primal about the way Katniss strides through the forest in the movie’s early scenes, stalking a deer with a rudimentary bow and arrow. She aims for the head and then, distracted by a District 12 pal (his name is Gale, and he’s played by Liam Hemsworth), misses. Lawrence has all the boldness and delicacy of her intended prey: Like that deer, she doesn’t miss a trick — her senses are aquiver every moment. Her Katniss is both tender and fierce, a character with contours and shadows, not just a cutout-and-keep role model. When she succumbs at last to Peeta’s earnest charms, it’s as if she’s finally captured the most elusive of prey, if only temporarily: She’s at peace with herself, but her very restlessness is part and parcel of that peace. As Katniss, Lawrence never stops moving: Even in her stillness, she always hits her mark. Read more on The Hunger Games here . Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Now that we’ve seen the 10-second teaser, here’s our wish list for the trailer, in ‘Twilight’ Tuesday. By Kara Warner Taylor Lautner in “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” Photo: Summit Entertainment All right, “Twilight” fans: Now that we’ve had our curiosity piqued and our hearts made all aflutter via the release of the brand-new “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” trailer sneak peek, it’s time to take a break from re-watching it 20 more times and think about what didn’t make the 10-second spot that we hope we see in the full-length trailer debuting in front of “The Hunger Games” later this week. This week’s “Twilight” Tuesday is dedicated to our “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” trailer wish list, featuring thoughtful commentary from one of our favorite experts, Kallie Mathews, webmistress of TwilightSeriesTheories.com . Arm Wrestling and Other Bella-as-a-Vampire Scenes So Bella is a vampire now. Hopefully that doesn’t surprise anyone at this point, since everyone who saw “Breaking Dawn – Part 1” got a little sneak peek of those freaky-colored eyes of hers. As such, we should see a whole new side of Bella in this movie, my favorite scene being the one between her and Emmett and their arm wrestling. “I am ‘hoping’ to see some vampire action in the full trailer,” Mathews said. “There are some great training scenes from the book I hope they include, as well as some great cottage scenes with Bella and Edward! I ‘expect’ to see lots of Bella as a vampire, and I’m OK with that!” A Lee Pace Sighting I’ve mentioned my enthusiasm for the new castmembers before, particularly my affection for Lee Pace , but it is worth repeating until more people appreciate him. Pace, whom you might recognize from his excellent work on the short-lived TV series “Pushing Daisies” or Tarsem’s “The Fall,” plays American nomadic vamp Garrett in “Breaking Dawn – Part 2,” and although he isn’t one of the major players in the film, his character still has a nice arc and I’m dying to see more of him. Mackenzie Foy as Renesmee Cullen Remember when Edward and Bella had a baby? Of course you do; how can anyone forget that graphic scene? Anyway, baby Renesmee grows up really fast in the second film, and she’s being played by beautiful young actress Mackenzie Foy , who has already told us a few adorable things about working with Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner . I would very much like to see her in action in the trailer. A Shirtless Pattinson or Lautner I’m sure there is a highbrow, intellectual approach to take here, but instead, I’m going to channel my inner-teenage girl and hope that we get to see some shirtlessness from Pattinson and Lautner. Trailers are all about enticing audiences to come see the movie, so why not serve up some gratuitous shots of the film’s very handsome men for the very dedicated fans? “I have a feeling we will see tight close-ups of the Cullens, a shirtless werewolf and lots of trees,” Mathews predicted. “Plus, you know there will be some great one-liners!” Appropriately Angsty Background Music In addition to the fanfare that surrounds the film’s stars and the actual movie itself, there is plenty of enthusiasm for the various “Twilight” soundtracks that have been released over the years, so much so that certain bands have been rediscovered by making the cut. I’d like to hear either a familiar favorite, like Sleeping at Last’s “Turning Page,” or a brand-new and soon-to-be hit song over which we can swoon for a few months. What would you like to see in the new trailer? Let us know in the comments below, or tweet me @karawarner! Check out everything we’ve got on “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos Top Five Favorite Moments From The ‘Twilight Saga’ Related Photos ‘Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1’ Premiere
It appears that Bobby Brown may “benefit” from Whitney Houston’s death. Word is, Bobby Brown is currently shopping his self-written bio-pic and you can count on a few details about his marriage with Whitney being in it. The script entitled The Bad Boy of R&B: The Bobby Brown Story was initially being sent out to potential backers late last year but received very little interest. The script’s ending will now have to be re-written to include the untimely death of the Bodyguard star, a source tells us. But the remainder of the story will stay the same as the former couple’s volatile marriage is only “lightly touched” on in the script. Source: Radar Online
‘The dress [had] a very big chance of coming off as cheesy,’ Judianna Makovsky says of Katniss’ interview frock. By Amy Wilkinson Jennifer Lawrence in the girl on fire costume in “Hunger Games” Photo: Lionsgate Costume designer Judianna Makovsky has been a member of Gary Ross’ cinematic glam squad for years. That’s why when ” The Hunger Games ” director was piecing together a pitch as to why he should helm the dystopian drama, he made a late-night call to his trusted colleague. The thrice-Oscar-nominated designer has collaborated with Ross on a number of his films, including “Pleasantville” and “Seabiscuit,” and now the duo may be working on their highest-profile project yet — one in which wild wigs, garish gowns and flame-licked jumpsuits are just another day at the office. In anticipation of the March 23 release of “The Hunger Games,” MTV News put in a call to Makovsky to talk about the Capitol’s crazy couture and how author Suzanne Collins’ elaborate vision was brought to life — albeit with a few alterations. MTV : How much did you know about “The Hunger Games” before Gary Ross came calling? Judianna Makovsky : I had not read them, I have to admit. I hadn’t even heard of them. But Gary Ross had called me, and his kids loved them, and he said, “I really want to do this movie.” I was on another movie set in Shreveport, Louisiana. He said, “You have to go get it,” and I said, “It’s 10 o’clock at night.” He said, “You have to get it first thing in the morning. You have to read it.” I’m like, “OK.” And then I was sending him images every day so he could start thinking. They were talking to several directors, and he really wanted to do it. It was great to start that early with him — trying to find images that were useful to him. MTV : I have to imagine reading the series and Suzanne Collins’ vivid descriptions were an evocative experience for an artist like you. Makovsky : I have to say, I try to read everything like a fan, but I also read it as a costume designer, and I go, “Oh my god. How do you do that?” Also, I was lucky enough to have a meeting with Suzanne, and a lot of things that are in the written word do not translate well to film. Lucky for me, she understood that and knew that and said, “Do what you need to do. If you think it’s not going to translate, I understand.” And she was great about it. MTV : Did you show her any of your drawings? Makovsky : At that point, if was fairly early. We had very few. We had already done mood boards for the districts and where we wanted to go. And, yes, she was there for that and loved all of that. It was great. MTV : What were your initial discussions with Gary Ross like? Makovsky : The initial discussions always start with character. I would say on this movie, we started with the world that they were going to live in. Philip Messina is the production designer. I’ve worked with him before; we’re a great team. Gary, Phil and I all sat down and just talked about what this world was going to be, and how do you have District 12 — how does that reflect in the Capitol? Because it is all the same planet, it is all the same time period. So they have to make sense together … Before Gary got the job, we sent him all these images of coal-mining towns and all these things. He picked up some of them and just went, “This is it. This isn’t a period movie, but I want the feel of these photographs.” So it was basically a discussion about the world they lived in, and then we started talking about individual characters. MTV : As you started working on each character, how much input did the individual actors have? Makovsky : There’s no point in designing particular things until you know who the actor is, whether I have a discussion with them or not. Katniss, I worked very closely with Jen [ Jennifer Lawrence ] because she was cast first. I had actually worked with Josh [Hutcherson] before, so that made that easy. I had worked with Donald Sutherland before. A lot of the actors were unavailable for fittings. They were all over the world shooting things. I sent them images, then I did sketches for them. Then we basically made it without them and they showed up and put it on! I have to say, the age of the Internet is a fabulous thing. You can scan things and send things and have these discussions at three in the morning when they’re in Budapest or wherever. MTV : Which outfit posed the biggest challenge to you? Makovsky : I think the interview dress. I think it was the hardest because the description in the book was something every fan loves but, honestly, in my opinion, and in all of our opinions, it wasn’t going to translate. Having this dress covered in flame-like jewels, you know, it’s no longer about Katniss. It’s about the dress. Also, the dress has a chance, a very big chance, of coming off as cheesy. MTV : I can see how it might verge into figure-skating-costume territory. Makovsky : See, that’s what I was worried about. It was going to be a “Dancing With the Stars” dress. I said, “I think we shouldn’t go that way.” First of all, all those jewels, it’s going to be so heavy it won’t twirl. She won’t be able to move or walk. People don’t realize that. I decided that it should really be about Katniss, and I wanted a young, fresh, modern couture cut, that when you first see her beautiful dress and she does her twirl, it does what it does. I mean, the bottom does have Swarovski crystals on it. But I really wanted it to be about Katniss. How beautifully she has transformed. It’s not the dress that transformed her. It’s her. Her beauty comes through. MTV : Fans were also really excited to see Katniss’ sleek Girl on Fire outfit. You have a bit of experience with jumpsuits from working on “X-Men: The Last Stand.” Did you hearken back to those superheroes for inspiration? Makovsky : I actually had the woman who made my “X-Men” jumpsuits make these costumes for me. She’s a genius at that kind of fit. Everyone thinks it’s leather — it’s not leather. It’s a novelty stretch fabric with this embossed plastic on it. It’s a very strange fabric. There’s also some stretch patent leather in there, but there’s no leather. I just wanted something that would have this incredible silhouette and have the shine of coal. In the books, it’s actually described a little bit more bland to me. It sounds like leotards and tights with high boots. It has a cape. There were all kinds of things that had to change because of physical and practical things on a chariot. The description in the book — Katniss and Peeta wear the same thing. Katniss had this fabulous headdress, but you put the headdress on Peeta and it looks pretty stupid. You can’t always do the same for a boy and a girl. MTV : Even though Katniss is the one in the spotlight, everyone seems to be most excited about Effie Trinket’s looks. Makovsky : She’s the essence of the Capitol. Working with Elizabeth [Banks] — Oh my god! I had so much fun. I’ve worked with her before. She actually called me before she was allowed to because her deal wasn’t done. She said, “I think we should start now. I’m coming over.” I had all these ideas that I had pulled out, fabric swatches and whatever. She came over and looked at what would work for her. We tried shapes on her, and they kept growing and growing and growing. It was really funny. Just to give her a certain walk. Effie is very prim in a funny way. So we wanted that primness to come through even though we sort of wanted to lampoon high fashion a little bit. It’s a little bit silly but it is still pretty. Check out everything we’ve got on ” The Hunger Games .” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: Josh Hutcherson Related Photos ‘Hunger Games’ World Premiere Red Carpet
Gary Ross may have been an unexpected choice to direct The Hunger Games , but his quest for the gig was no less obsessive than the fervor of the novels’ fans; it took him exec-stalking across the Atlantic, involved elaborate custom-made storyboards, and inspired him to make a video of actual Hunger Games fans and their love for Suzanne Collins’s sci-fi series. (Besides, who else could’ve brought on Steven Soderbergh to direct second unit on one of the film’s big scenes?) Sure, Ross had been Oscar-nominated four times before (for writing Big , Dave , and Seabiscuit , which he also co-produced), but his resume was so far removed from the realm of dystopian teen science fiction that some fans were wary of what he’d do to the beloved franchise. He learned about the books from his children, both teenagers, pored over the first book himself, and decided at 1:30 a.m. that he needed to be the one to direct the big-screen adaptation. So what was his first move? Stalking, of course. “When we met directors, before I had met hardly anybody, he came to London – I was there working on another movie – and he pretended he was there for Wimbledon,” recalled producer Nina Jacobson, who optioned Collins book in 2009 before ultimately taking it to Lionsgate after fielding offers from multiple studio suitors. “We went out for breakfast and had an amazing conversation and it was very clear that what he loved about the book, and what mattered about the book, were the characters and the themes, and that he really got it. He got it at the most fundamental level. I had known him for a long time, but from that point on I was very mindful of how insightful he was about the material and how much he understood what it was really about.” Ross had never before had to audition for a directing job, he told Movieline earlier this month, so he went all out in his official pitch presentation. Commissioning multiple concept artists (“More than I’d had on the actual movie,” he quipped), Ross constructed elaborate storyboards depicting the look and feel of dystopian Panem, which he and production designer Philip Messina describe as “retro-futuristic.” But at the centerpiece of his presentation was a video he’d shot consulting young fans of the books discussing what themes spoke to them most in The Hunger Games . That video helped sell Jacobson. “He had this video that he had done of his kids and their friends, and what those kids loved about the book,” she recalled. “He could really appreciate from a fan point of view what it is that makes these books so moving – the idea, which was even inside his original conversations, that Katniss’s relationship with Rue is the thing that opens her up to the possibility of trusting Peeta. The deeper character and thematic lines in the material, he understood from the beginning, but he also had a sensitivity to what spoke to kids.” Once he landed the job, Ross pulled in notables in many fields to help achieve his vision, including composers James Newton Howard and T Bone Burnett, Clint Eastwood’s DP Tom Stern, and editors Stephen Mirrione (a Steven Soderbergh regular) and Juliette Welfling ( The Diving Bell and the Butterfly ). He also tapped an old friend to help out with one brief, but key, scene that he couldn’t shoot himself. Enter Soderbergh, who stepped in on second-unit duties and operated the camera himself on [SPOILERS] a riot scene that breaks out in District 11 during the Games. [END SPOILERS] Judge for yourself if Ross was the director for the job when The Hunger Games hits theaters March 23. Meanwhile, Ross is set to direct the sequel, Catching Fire , with Simon Beaufoy scripting. Read more on The Hunger Games . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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