Opening in theaters on March 23rd is the highly anticipated new film The Hunger Games, which is based on the extremely popular novel of the same name by author Suzanne Collins. The film was directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit), and stars Academy Award-nominee Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) as the story's hero Katniss Everdeen, as well as Josh Hutcherson (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), Liam Hemsworth (The Last Song), Woody Harrelson (Rampart), Elizabeth Banks (Man on a Ledge), Lenny Kravitz (Precious), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Toby Jones (My Week With Marilyn), Wes Bentley (There Be Dragons), and Donald Sutherland (Klute). 

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the pleasure of sitting down with actor Wes Bentley to discuss his role as Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games. The actor discussed the new film, his pivotal role, getting the part, his character's unique facial hair, the inspiration he gained for his role from watching reality television, director Gary Ross' vision for the film, and the brilliant world that author Suzanne Collins has created. 

At this point, does The Hunger Games really need an introduction?  The sheer ubiquity of promotion for the film, combined with its ecstatic critical reception and the general anticipation surrounding it, suggest that no intro is necessary.  You know the basic story by now: in the future, the totalitarian society of Panem enjoys an annual survival competition that pits twenty-four young people from the nation's twelve districts against one another, with only one allowed to survive. The first book in Suzanne Collins's trilogy of dystopian novels became a bestseller with an appeal far beyond its young adult classification, and Lionsgate has been expertly hyping the film adaptation for months.

A year ago, the talk was all about casting.  Specifically, it was centered around who should play the three central characters in the trilogy: heroine Katniss Everdeen and her fellow District 12 residents Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne.  Jennifer Lawrence, an Oscar nominee for her work in Winter's Bone, won the role of Katniss, while Josh Hutcherson of The Kids Are All Right and The Last Song's Liam Hemsworth signed on to play Peeta and Gale, respectively.

With anticipation for The Hunger Games reaching a fever pitch, all three young thespians were happy to talk about the film at the Los Angeles press conference.  IAR was lucky enough to participate in roundtable interviews with Lawrence, Hutcherson, and Hemsworth.  In the midst of a huge promotional push, the actors were happy to talk about the novels, the film, their physical training, and the seeming inevitability of sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

If you saw this week's The Hunger Games clip introducing Lenny Kravitz as Cinna and wondered just who Cinna would bet on in the eponymous survival competition, then there's a new TV spot that answers your question unequivocally. Hint: It might just be Katniss Everdeen, the heroine played by Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence.  In addition to answering that crucial question, the TV spot also shows off some new imagery from the Capitol and a teeny tiny peek at the actual games, which have been largely kept out of the marketing.

There's less than a month until The Hunger Games arrives at a theater near you, and Lionsgate is nearing the end of phase one its Build-A-Franchise plan to create four films based on the bestselling young adult novels by Suzanne Collins.  Phase one means turning The Hunger Games into a commercially successful movie event that will justify moving ahead with Catching Fire and (the presumably two-part) Mockingjay.  To that end, Lionsgate has released two new thirty-second TV spots for the film, both of which dabble in the build-up to the eponymous televised survival competition.

The Hunger Games is two months away from introducing the futuristic dystopia of Panem to movie screens everywhere, but the idea all along has been to adapt all three novels in Suzanne Collins' crazy-popular young adult novel series.  The obvious influence here is Twilight, the franchise that has proven so profitable for Summit Entertainment, which was recently purchased by The Hunger Games studio Lionsgate.  As was the case with that vampire-loving series, Lionsgate is hitting the ground running with The Hunger Games, having already set a release date for the first sequel.  Now, writer-director Gary Ross and star Jennifer Lawrence are talking about the sequel, Catching Fire.

Lionsgate, which just made a major purchase by picking up Summit Entertainment, remains focused on spinning a full-on franchise out of The Hunger Games.  The studio is intent on turning the three bestselling novels into four movies, repeating the climactic-novel-as-two-movies formula that has now worked for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  They're ready to haul ass once the first film hits, as Oscar-winner Simon Beaufoy is already at work on the screenplay for Catching Fire, with The Hunger Games director Gary Ross set to return for another round.

For most audiences, their introduction to Elizabeth Banks saw her wearing a pageboy wig and manning a desk at the Daily Bugle in all three of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.  Banks has never been pigeonholed as Betty Brant or anything else, for that matter.  The actress is perhaps most associated with comedies, having memorably appeared in films such as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Wet Hot American Summer, and Role Models, amongst others.  She's also an accomplished actor in more dramatic fare like The Next Three Days, Seabiscuit, Invincable, and the upcoming Man on a Ledge.  She even played Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's W.

For her role in the anticipated The Hunger Games, Banks reunites with her Seabiscuit director Gary Ross to bring the vivid futuristic world of Suzanne Collins's bestselling young adult novels to the cinematic life.  The film, which studio is Lionsgate is hoping will be the first of a trilogy including Catching Fire and Mockingjay, takes place in a dystopia where young people from twelve impoverished districts are forced to compete in an annual televised survival competition.  Banks plays Effie Trinket, a crucially important character throughout the trilogy who acts as a sort of public relations escrot to the District 12 tributes, played by stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson.

For the better part of a year, Lionsgate has cultivated the air of a blockbuster around The Hunger Games, the first in a planned trilogy adapting the dystopian young adult novels of Suzanne Collins.  The studio has done so with endless reports on casting, then with consistent official images reminding the world that The Hunger Games is indeed on the way and is indeed something that a lot of people are looking forward to.  Today, Lionsgate did so yet again with a batch of six official images.  Two are behind the scenes photos featuring director Gary Ross and Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, while the other four are stills from the film, one of which features Lenny Kravitz, Woody Harrelson, and Josh Hutcherson as Cinna, Haymitch Abernathy, and Peeta Mellark.

A few weeks ago, eight character posters from The Hunger Games indicated that we might be on the verge of a new leg in the film's marketing, one which would be less reliant upon images of actors wearing muted colors in the woods.  Fans of the novel series by Suzanne Collins were no doubt hoping that the coming weeks would bring glimpses of the gaudy and colorful capital city in the futuristic dystopia of Panem.  Well, good news and bad news, folks.  Good news: Today we have a brand new image of heroine Katniss Everdeen, with Jennifer Lawrence righteously wielding a bow and arrow.  Bad news: Once again, she's standing in the woods.

As established in the bestselling young adult novel by Suzanne Collins, the future of The Hunger Games takes place in an America that has mutated into the dystopia of Panem, a society divided into twelve distinct districts.  Each district is responsible for one sector of industry, and once every year, two young people are selected from each to head to the Capitol and engage in brutal, televised survival games providing figurative bread and circuses for the impoverished people of Panem.  Katniss Everdeen, the heroine played by Jennifer Lawrence in the upcoming film, hails from the mining sector, District 12.

A new series of The Hunger Games posters are each associated with a specific district and tie into an online marketing campaign for the film, which recently concluded principal photography in North Carolina.  By heading to TheCapitol.pn, you can register as a citizen of Panem, and you'll be automatically sorted into a distinct district.  As each of these seals inform you in no uncertain terms, you should then proceed immediately (sounds oddly threatening) to the facebook page of your district and "Like" it.  Katniss, for example, would head to the D 12 page if she weren't busy trying to not die publicly.