Hollywood thought ahead this weekend, offering two new films perfect for the national post-St. Patrick’s Day hangover sure to ensue on Friday… and a legal thriller for the sturdier-constituted among us eager to avoid the drunken, weaving masses. But let’s check out the landscape before giving too many thanks…
On the heels of today’s confirmation that 20-year-old Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence will play Katniss Everdeen, the 16-year-old heroine of Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games adaptation, EW caught up with director Gary Ross to get his explanation of the casting move. According to the interview, Lawrence’s age and her blonde hair — details that raised fan eyebrows when the Winter’s Bone star first emerged as a front-runner — are of no matter to Ross, who says the choice was “the easiest casting decision I ever made in my life.” And if it makes any difference, Suzanne Collins apparently agrees.
It looks like for once, a casting rumor may be true. According to “an individual with knowledge of the deal,” Gary Ross and the producers decided that Oscar-nominated Jennifer Lawrence had the right combination of strength and emaciation to play Katniss in the upcoming Hunger Games film, and her deal to star in the film is now confirmed per The Wrap. (Neither Lionsgate nor Lawrence’s reps have spoken officially about this report yet.) Obviously, we have our our own ideas about this, but chime in with your reactions. [ The Wrap ]
If you enter Movieline’s Oscar poll and select your choices for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress, you can win a MacBook Air, iPods, or plenty of other prizes. Who knows? Maybe I’ll win the damn MacBook Air. I don’t see a conflict of interest at all. You can’t make me see it either. Join the fun after the jump.
Every week, Movieline brings you a chat with an up-and-coming actor about whom we have a pretty good feeling. Some are younger than others; some have breakthroughs of different degrees and magnitudes, from lead roles to sidekicks to love interests to other critical foils. But all have one specific thing in common: You’ll be seeing a lot of them in the future, and there’s a good chance you heard from them here first. Read on for a few of 2010’s highlights from The Verge.
If you can’t agree that Jennifer Lawrence is the best, you haven’t seen Winter’s Bone . If you can’t agree that Jennifer Lawrence has breasts, you haven’t seen her swimsuit photo portfolio in Esquire . How best to reconcile these two different sides of her? Hint: It’s in the headline!