The Hunger Games Cast is a Veritable Whose Who of Who the F**k is That?
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (35)
Two more names have been added to the cast of Gary Ross’ Hunger Games, the Lionsgate adaptation the Suzanne Collins spectacular YA novel. And so far, while I can’t complain too much about the talent of two of the leads that have been cast, none of it feels right, beginning with Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit).
The two additions today were Josh Hutcherson, who will play Peeta, and Liam Hemsworth, who has been cast as Gale, both of whom will star opposite Jennifer Lawrence. For most Americans, all three of these names are obscure: Lawrence is a incredible talent, but unless you’ve seen her phenomenal performance in Winter’s Bone, she’s probably familiar to most as that woman you couldn’t place at the Oscars. Meanwhile, I like Hutcherson’s turn in The Kids Are All Right and, years ago, in Bridge to Terabithia. I suppose he has a fanbase of younger folks, who are the target audience. Liam Hemsworth, actually, is both the least credible among the three (he was in The Last Song opposite Miley Cyrus and the nifty time-travel indie flick, Triangle) but also the one best suited to the role. He’s probably best known as Chris Hemsworth’s brother, and even Chris Hemsworth isn’t that known a quantity, at least until Thor arrives.
It’s a weird cast and, really, besides Gale, nothing like I pictured it. I pictured someone like Dev Patel for Peeta, someone much closer to Hailee Steinfeld as Katniss, and sort of a lumberjack-y kid for Gale, which I think Hemsworth could pull off. I dunno. Maybe all these wacky elements will cohere, but the whole thing just feels off to me. Also, really fucking white.
In either respect, for the many of you who have no idea who these people are, a pictorial:
Katniss
Peeta
Gale
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Comments
Posted by: KatSings at April 4, 2011 5:14 PM
I maintain that I will forgive many sins of these movies if they cast Hugh Laurie as Haymitch. That being said...my biggest problem is the one I KNEW I was going to have, which is that they are almost all to old for this story. These are teenagers. Their youth is really important, and they've cast 20 somethings that, I'm sorry, look like 20 somethings. Except for Hutcherson, who definitely looks younger than he is, and is only 19 at that. I knew they'd gear upwards in age because 1 - they always fucking do, and 2 - the assumption is that this material is "too much" for young actors. Which, quite frankly, is bullshit.
However, I don't exactly hate this casting...yet. There is a LOT that these actors have to prove, and I'm not sure any film version of this will hold up. Mostly because you know they are going to aim for PG-13 and take out everything that made the book challenging in the first place. ::Hollywood induced sigh::