Anticipation is building for the big screen adaptation of The Hunger Games, the best selling trilogy of books written by Suzanne Collins, which hit theaters on March 23 by Lion’s Gate.
Clearly, the studio is hoping Hunger Games be the next Twilight style saga – not that the stars of the film look at it that way, of course.
Jennifer Lawrence, who won the lead role of Katniss Everdeen in Games, emphatically told Vanity Fair Hunger Games is not Twilight, adding, “While I hear the comparisons, it’s really premature to say that it will be the same phenomenon.”
She further told Access Hollywood, “The reach is very similar, they’re very popular books with a very large fanbase. I think the size of it is very familiar to Twilight.”
Lawrence is already a best actress nominee from her role in Winter’s Bone, and has also starred in X-Men: First Class. She is trying to brace herself for even more fame, telling the Wall Street Journal that one day she was in a coffee shop thinking, if I say yes to this job, next year at this time people will be here taking pictures of me with their phones. But I didn’t want to say no to a script that I loved because I was scared.”
As for the film itself, the first installment of The Hunger Games was adapted into screenplay form and directed by Gary Ross, who’d previously written Big, Dave, and wrote and directed Seabiscuit.
Ross told VF, “My kids turned me on to it, and I went nuts. You rarely get a tentpole that has this much emotional depth, this much character to dive into.”
The L.A. Times reports that Lion’s Gate is looking at the Games trilogy as a “game changer” for the company, and it has a huge built in audience that will certainly be there opening weekend.
Although the film has kids fighting each other to the death in a futuristic society, in all likelihood it’s going to have to stay within a PG-13 for maximum box office impact.
Lawrence told Access Hollywood her favorite part of weapon training was archery. ”I feel like Hugh Jackman,” she said. “We all have to get into supernatural shape.”
