By: debbie lynn elias
In 2009, a new young adult novel called THE HUNGER GAMES, written by Suzanne Collins, hit the market. Initially slow to be embraced by readers, once word started getting out about this being a “must read” book for all ages, the popularity of THE HUNGER GAMES spread faster than the call of a Mockingjay through the woods of Panem. Taking the world by storm, THE HUNGER GAMES soared to the top of the Best Seller lists and in the process, caught the eye of film producer Nina Jacobson. “There is a young fella who works for me, named Brian Unkeless, who’s very smart. . .He read the book and loved it, and told me I should read it. . .So, I read it and couldn’t put it down and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I really became obsessed with the thought of producing it, and was completely bothered by the idea that anybody but me could produce it. I felt that there were so many things that could go wrong, in adapting it, and I had this fierce desire to protect this book that she had written. At that time, I read the second book, in manuscript form, and so I saw where [author, Suzanne Collins] was going with the series. I was able to convince Suzanne to trust me with the books.”
Equally enthusiastic in her love of THE HUNGER GAMES book series is Elizabeth Banks who, on hearing they were to be made into a film, fought hard for the role of Effie Trinket. “I was a huge, nerdy fan of the books. I read all of them long ago. I read them in hardcover, and I was on the waitlist on Amazon for (the last book) Mockingjay. I devoured these books. I loved Suzanne’s writing, loved the trilogy and loved the heroine. I love Effie. She’s comedic, and she’s the exact type of role that I like to play – if you’ve seen any of my work. It was just so much fun. And, I was so excited when it was Gary [Ross, directing]. We made Seabiscuit together and he’s an amazing storyteller. I knew he would treat the material with as much respect as me, being a fan, wanted whoever made it to do. And then, he put together this incredible cast, starting with Jennifer [Lawrence].”
Joining in with uncontainable excitement is Alexander Ludwig who admits to being a “huge, huge fan of the books” long before the movie even began to take shape. Liam Hemsworth also ” read all the books before I met with anyone about the movie, and I became a fan of the books.”
And while Wes Bentley knew about the books, he admits, “I hadn’t read them until they offered me the role.” Lenny Kravitz, on the other hand, knew nothing about THE HUNGER GAMES book, laughingly giving blame to the fact that “I was living under a rock and didn’t know about it.” When contacted by director Gary Ross about being in the film and tackling the part of Cinna, Kravitz admitted his lack of knowledge, saying, “I don’t know what [THE HUNGER GAMES] is, so I have to read the book. So, the next day I downloaded and read the book, and then called him back very quickly.”
Interesting is the affection that the actors already had for certain characters in the books prior to becoming involved in the film. For Banks, it was Effie, whom she now plays. But for Isabelle Fuhrman, “My favorites were Katniss and Rue. I think because they’re so relatable and lovable.” But given that Gary Ross wanted to cast her as one of the Tributes, Clove, who must set her own sights on killing Katniss and Rue if she is to win THE HUNGER GAMES, Fuhrman went back to the book to become more acquainted with Clove. “I’ve always said you have to love your characters. So it was re-reading the book and learning to love one of the characters that was really a bad character and then from discovering who she was and what made her so terrible and so mentally disturbed. And then from there just doing a lot of character of work.” Fuhrman also notes that “When you read the book, it’s written through Katniss’ eyes and you really get to know who Katniss is, and you understand certain characters and parts of them, but I wanted to develop and figure out Clove’s psyche and where she came from.” In order to do that, Fuhrman wrote her own “one and a half page backstory, and then I talked to Gary and revised it to make her a little more interesting. . .I also kept in mind that the fans are going to be watching this and they have to be happy with it. I’m really excited to see how it’s received.”
Something Josh Hutcherson notes is that, “[I]in the book, you have Katniss’ internal dialogue to help you understand that she’s confused about Peeta. But in the movie, you don’t have that element. You really have to rely on how the scenes are structured, the dialogue and the other performances. When watching the movie, I felt like I was right along with Katniss, the whole time, as a viewer. In my opinion, it came from how it was edited together.”
As the countdown continues to THE HUNGER GAMES release on March 23, 2012, producer Jacobson looks back to the beginning of this journey and the printed word. “When I first brought the books to Lionsgate, they had sold about 150,000 copies, which is a very good result for a [young adult] book. And to their credit, Lionsgate was very excited and committed to the movie, from the beginning. At 150,000 copies, they were as present and excited to make the movie, as they were when we made the movie, which was probably about 8 million copies later. Now, it’s sold three times that.”
With the world watching, Jacobson admits it’s a “balancing act of knowing that you have ardent fans” when bringing a book like THE HUNGER GAMES to the big screen. ” All I really had to do was put myself in my own shoes. I never had to put myself in somebody else’s shoes. . . Ultimately, when fans get very passionate about a movie, they just want you to do it well. They don’t want you to screw it up. Their idea of doing it well might be different than yours, but ultimately, they really just don’t want you to mess up the thing that they love. So, being able to just stick to our instincts and honor the books and find a way to stay the course of trying to make the best possible decisions that you would make creatively on any movie, without having your head turned too much by all of the interest, has been a great challenge. It’s the best challenge you could ask for.”
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