Corona | Coming Attractions

Lionsgate chose to release the DVD/Blu-ray of The Hunger Games last Friday, and it seems to have paid off. The company is reporting that they have seen sales of 3.8 million units of the movie over the weekend.

As well, people were downloading the movie digitally. More first day transactions for The Hunger Games flick were made on Comcast that any other movie in the past four years. The Hunger Games also generated more first day sales on Xbox Live's Zune Video and broke the previous record for sales on iTunes.

Of course, the studio is very pleased by the record sales. "Our motion picture event of the year is translating into a home entertainment juggernaut that is already setting new digital records and demonstrating sustained playability similar to the film's remarkable long-term box office performance," said the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Ron Schwartz. "We are especially pleased to see more than one third of its first weekend units sold in the higher margin Blu-ray format, a remarkably high percentage."

None of success for The Hunger Games' home video release should come as too much of a surprise. The movie earned $407 million dollars in North American theaters when it was released this past spring and another $300 million from international locations. Currently, The Hunger Games sits at position #13 on the all-time box office charts. Over 50 million copies of the book have been sold in just America alone.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is shooting shortly and has been scheduled for a November 22, 2013 release. The third and final book, Mockingjay, will be split into two films that will be released in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

With less than a week to go until The Hunger Games arrives in theaters, we've now added 22 new images from the movie to our Hunger Games gallery.

Here is the final one-sheet that you'll see in North American movie theaters for The Hunger Games when it arrives in March.

If you follow the films of director Steven Soderbergh, then this piece of news may seem like it's coming from out of left field. The Ocean's Eleven, Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich and Solaris filmmaker was asked by longtime friend/Hunger Games director if he would like to come be the project's second unit director. Soderbergh accepted the job and now he's off to work at his new job.

This kind of thing is really unexpected in the world of moviemaking. Soderbergh has two films in post that he's still working on, Contagion and Haywire, but his connection to Gary Ross and his passion for making movies incredibly fast will be assets to The Hunger Games production. As the site that broke the story points out, The Hunger Games is due in theaters in only seven months.

Three new images of The Hunger Games stars Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth have arrived on Entertainment Weekly's website. We've taken the liberty of showing one; two more await your viewing pleasure.

It seems that almost every day Summit releases a press release trumpeting yet another cast member for The Hunger Games. The latest actor to join the cast is 75-year-old Donald Sutherland who will play the fascist leader of Pacem, President Coriolanus Snow.

Snow is described in the book as having the smell of blood on his breath as a result of surviving a poisoning attempt, leaving his inner mouth covered with sores. He's an antagonist throughout all three of the books.

The first photograph of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen is the prestige of Entertainment Weekly. The pop culture mag features Lawrence as Katniss on their new cover, and inside is a feature report with quotes from the actress, director Gary Ross and Hunger Games creator Suzanne Collins talking about the movie.

Lawrence talks about the pressure of saying yes to the part. "I knew that as soon as I said yes, my life would change...And I walked around an entire day thinking 'It's not too late, I could still go back and do indies, I haven't said yes yet, it’s not too late."

The Hunger Games has found its Head Gamemaker. Lionsgate announced that Wes Bentley (Ghost Rider) will play Seneca Crane in their adaptation of Suzanne Collins' bestselling novel. As Head Gamemaker, Crane runs the brutal competition pitting heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) against childhood friend Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and 22 others in a battle for survival served up as entertainment in the ruins of a future America.

Bentley shot to fame in 1999 when he played disaffected suburban teen Ricky Fitts in American Beauty. He earned a BAFTA nomination for best supporting actor for the role, and shared a SAG award with the cast for best ensemble performance.

Paula Malcomson has joined the cast and will play the mother of Katniss, a grieving widow that now finds herself scared to death and fearing for the worst as her eldest daughter competes in the Hunger Games.

Malcomson starred in Caprica where she played Amanda Graystone. She's also appeared in episodes of Sons of Anarchy, Fringe, The Event and John From Cincinatti.

Now that Jennifer Lawrence has won the part of Katniss, Lionsgate is testing several actors vying for the parts of Gale and Peeta with the young actress. According to one of Hollywood's trade magazines, some of the potential candidates are as follows:

• For the role of Gale, auditioning are Liam Hemsworth (The Last Song), David Henrie (Wizards of Waverly Place), Robbie Amell (Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Continues) and Drew Roy (Hannah Montana).
• For the part of Peeta, the known actors testing are Josh Hutcherson (Journey to the Center of the Earth), Alexander Ludwig (Escape to Witch Mountain), Hunter Parrish (Weeds), Lucas Till (Battle: Los Angeles) and Evan Peters (Kick-Ass).

According to trade magazine Variety, Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone, this summer's X-Men: First Class) is the top candidate to play Katness in the movie. The site reports that Lawrence is close to fielding an offer from Lionsgate.

The Kentucky-born actress is 20, which is an older age than most fans had in mind for the character. If she is cast as Katniss, it's likely that Lawrence's older age will also push up the ages of the other characters in Suzanne Collins' book.

Don't make plans for March 23, 2012 if you're an expectant fan of The Hunger Games book and looking forward to being among the first to watch the movie. Lionsgate has staked out 3/23/12 as the opening day for the Gary Ross-directed film, which is to have its cast announced shortly if the company wants to make that delivery date.

Hunger Games director Gary Ross and producer Nina Jacobson are featured in a new interview in the pages of Entertainment Weekly. The duo are asked how they will adapt Suzanne Collins' novel, which features several intense and gory sequences, so that the film can meet PG-13 expectations.

"It's not going to be an R-rated movie because I want the 12- and 13- and 14-year-old-fans to be able to go see it," Ross told the magazine. "This book means too much to too many teenagers for it not to be PG-13. It's their story and they deserve to be able to access it completely. And I don't think it needs to be more extreme than that...  I don't need to have a huge prosthetic budget or make this movie incredibly bloody in order for it to be just as compelling, just as scary, and just as riveting."

While some have been comparing The Hunger Games to the immensly popular Twilight franchise, it's a comparison that producer Jacobson doesn't think fits. "I think anybody who’s read the two books knows that they are as different as night and day, with very little in common other than the youthfulness of their protagonists," she said. "I mean, Holden Caulfield is young too! But as a producer you can’t help but be thrilled that people are comparing something that you’re working on to something that so many people love."

Writer Billy Ray has turned in his rewrite and Lionsgate has got their list of directing candidates down to three: Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition, American Beauty), David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 30 Days of Night) and Gary Ross (Secretariat, Pleasantville). Lionsgate management will supposedly make their decision this week as to who gets the job.

Suzanne Collins will adapt her novel The Hunger Games into a screenplay for Lionsgate and Nina Jacobson's Color Force production company. [Full story]