Francis Lawrence Says 'Mockingjay' Will Wrap in 5 Days

Francis Lawrence announced via twitter that Mockingjay will wrap in 5 days. FIVE DAYS!! We are assuming that he means 5 business days and that they'll wrap on Friday, June 20th, but that's just a guess. Jeffrey Wright and producer Nina Jacobson chimed in about wrapping as well. And Jeffrey also tweeted about saying farewell to his character, Beetee. 

Judging from YOUR reactions to this news on twitter, facebook and tumblr, we need a fandom group hug. Or a trailer, how about a trailer? That will fix us right up. 

Something Is Happening at TheCapitol.PN

Something new is happening at TheCapitol.PN. We're not sure what it means but it is SOMETHING!

New 'Mockingjay' Set Photos From Berlin Featuring Josh Hutcherson

There's a small batch of new Mockingjay set photos from Berlin today featuring Josh Hutcherson arriving on set and having lunch. Wes Chatham and Natalie Dormer (or her double - hard to confirm) are in another. They're pretty tabloidy, so apologies to those who hate that sort of thing. They're filming at the International Congress Center in Berlin and fans are saying that security is VERY tight there.

It's a news drought, kids, you have no idea how excited we are to see Josh having lunch. And exiting his car. Yep, we need some Mockingjay stills, promo, trailer, anything.

Josh and MAYBE Natalie Dormer (or her double)Josh and Wes ChathamTrailers on the setFilming continues at ICC Berlin

Omid Abtahi & The 'Mockingjay' Cast Give 'The Hunger Games' Salute

Omid Abtahi (he plays Homes in Mockingjay) posted a great picture to his twitter today. He and Natalie Dormer (Cressida), Michelle Forbes (Jackson) and Mahershala Ali (Boggs) from the Mockingjay cast giving the Hunger Games 3 finger salute with the caption, "Getting close to the end. This has been fun.  #mockingjay"

Photo courtesy @AbtahiOmid on twitterYou can follow Omid on twitter at @AbtahiOmid.

Jena Malone & The Shoe x Thompson Hotel Takeover Tour

Photos courtesy Thompson HotelsJena Malone and The Shoe are doing a summer mini tour of Thompson Hotel locations in the US, Toronto and London. Will you be able to check them out at a location near you?

Jeffrey Wright Talks About Mockingjay and Jennifer Lawrence in His Reddit AMA

Jeffrey Wright did a Reddit AMA this morning to discuss his role as Dr. Valentin Narcisse on Boardwalk Empire and to raise money for two of his favorite charities, Tribeca Film Institute and Taia Peace Foundation. He talked a bit about Mockingjay and the joy of working with Jennifer Lawrence.

Jeffrey said he was in Brooklyn for his AMA chat. Wonder if he's wrapped his scenes on Mockingjay already?

How awesome is Jennifer Lawrence really?

She’s really awesome. I have to say, as awesome as you might imagine. The brilliant, vibrant, upbeat and original personality. Working with her is a choice between focusing and laughing yourself into hysterics.

Hi there, I was wondering if you've read the whole Hunger Games series (and if so, your thoughts)? Or what best helped you get a sense of the type of person Beetee is and how to portray him? Thanks!

Yes, of course I’ve read the whole of the Hunger Games series. I think it would have been foolish not to, considering all of the wonderful detail and background story that they contain. They represent the whole cosmology of these character and habits. If I was going to be able to flesh out my character, I needed to know as much as possible, so I went there to discover that. There’s a lot there, but I think that Suzanne Collins tapped into something very much within the moment that we find ourselves in. On set, we’re continually amazed at the way in which the world outside the set is reflected within the world we’re trying to recreate from her books. The books and movies are directed towards young minds, which make them all the more exciting. This moment recently in Thailand, where protesters were throwing up the Hunger Games hand sign in the streets, was just kind of mind boggling and odd in the best way, and only indicative of Suzanne’s stories and ideas, and of these movies we’re all a part of.

Hey I just met a girl named Valerie on Tinder who said she's a pro actor in Atlanta who will be in both Mockingjay 1 and 2. Is it true or is she bullshitting me?

Well, since you’ve only met her online, I think there’s probably any number of questions regarding whether or not she is who she says she is. I would say the chances that she is real are 50/50. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Why don’t you ask her who’s the best at forgetting their lines on set, and if it’s me, she might be onto something...

Thanks for bringing life to your character in Mockingjay, and so brilliantly! What is/was your favourite part of working on Mockingjay?

My favorite part of working on Mockingjay, that’s kind of an easy question. My favorite part was working with all of the other actors and Francis Lawrence, our director. And being on set with the crew; the atmosphere and the feeling that was created is a combo of hard work and good focus.

Do you think the message in Hunger Games is actual for nowadays' world?

I think so, and it seems to me that I’m not alone in that, because the popularity of the stories would suggest that. I think the stories are relevant, not only in a way that’s relevant to our time, but I think there’s a kind of universal humanity that touches people that is timeless. Katniss, who is the focal point of this story, is a classically mythic figure, who undertakes these extraordinary adventures and who faces these phenomenal challenges, only to really make her way back home and back to the things that are granular and that are most dear to her and most intimate for her. We all understand that and we all get how meaningful that is.

If you'd like to support Jeffrey's favorite charities, Tribeca Film Institute and Taia Peace Foundation, he's offering you and a guest the chance to join him on the set of Boardwalk Empire. You can enter here. See his entire Reddit AMA here.

Lori Petty Talks Directing Jennifer Lawrence's Debut, "She Deserves 100% of Her Success, Period"

Jennifer Lawrence in 'The Poker House'Actress Lori Petty was a staple of 90's hits like Point Break, Tank Girl and A League of Their Own, and just made an appearance in the season premiere of Orange Is The New Black. She's also been busy directing films, and helmed Jennifer Lawrence's 2008 debut feature film, The Poker House. She spoke with The Daily Beast about discovering Jennifer and what makes her a star.

I saw your 2008 directorial debut, The Poker House, and people don’t really give you enough credit for “discovering” Jennifer Lawrence, since that was her first film credit.

No shit! You can quote me on that. No shit. I cast her in her first film. Look, she deserves one hundred percent of her success, period. In addition to that, I think I passed along 25 years of experience of being an actress to her. But she’s amazing and the camera loves her, and that’s why I cast her. It’s like when I first saw Leo DiCaprio in This Boy’s Life. We were editing A League of Their Own and De Niro and them were editing This Boy’s Life next door. Me and Penny [Marshall] were inseparable because I wanted to absorb everything she was doing, so I’d go to post-production with her. So De Niro comes in and goes, “You’ve got to see this kid.” So we went into the room and saw some unedited scenes with DiCaprio and both went, “There’s another movie star.” That’s what happened with Jennifer.

Where did you find Jennifer?

I’ve lived in Venice since Point Break in ’91, and Mary Vernieu lives in Venice, so she cast The Poker House as a favor to me, and she’s brilliant and casts every good movie. So, I’m in Chicago and we’d already cast Selma Blair as the mom, and Selma is five feet tall and weights 90 pounds. Mary sends me these tapes of these girls and goes, “This girl Jennifer Lawrence is a star. You have to watch this tape.” But it said she was 5’9” on her resume, and I said, “I can’t fit them both in the frame! How am I supposed to have the mom be 5’ and the daughter be 5’9”?” But she said, “Just watch the tape.” So I watched the tape and was like, “Okay, great, that’s another movie star.”

When I flew back to L.A., I put Jennifer, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Sophi [Bairley], who plays the middle daughter, read together, and afterwards I said, “Do you want to be in a movie?” And they said, “Of course, that’s why we’re here.” And I said, “No, do you want to be in this movie?” And they said, “Yes, of course we do, that’s why we’re here.” And I said, “No, I’m offering you the part, do you want to be in this movie?” And they started jumping up and down and screaming. I did that because I hated auditioning for a part and then waiting five days for your agent to tell you that you got it.

And Jennifer Lawrence’s father pops up in the film, too, as the basketball coach.

I forgot about that! He’s the basketball coach, yes. He was just hanging around. It was super low-budget and I had no producers looking over my shoulder. Steve Cannell, god rest his soul, just wrote a check and it was handled through his production company, so we were just humpin’ and making a movie. So I don’t know whose idea it was.

Here's a flashback to Lori and Jennifer doing press for The Poker House in 2010.

The Hunger Games Trilogy Tops Amazon Kindle's Most-Highlighted Books and Passages

Photo by geekosystem.com From Vox.com:

Conventionally, the most common way of gauging the most popular books in America has been looking at the New York Times' bestsellers list. But as we shift from reading on paper to screens, there's an interesting new option: Amazon's lists of the most-highlighted passages and most-highlighted books on Kindles around the world.

Amazon collects data on what its readers highlight most. The resulting most-highlighted lists are a fascinating record of reading as a whole.

Of the top 25 most-highlighted passages ever, a ridiculous 19 come from one of the books in the Hunger Games trilogy, including numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Additionally, the three books rank as 3, 8, and 13 in the list of most-highlighted books of all time.

Image by Vox.comPart of this is simply due to the fact that Kindles have only become widely-used over the past few years, and The Hunger Games has been the most popular series during that time.

But the books' dominance in the rankings is still pretty amazing. The single most-highlighted passage, from Catching Fire ("Because sometimes things happen to people and they’re not equipped to deal with them.") was highlighted by 17784 Kindle users. No other passage from any book has gotten more than 9260 highlights.

Some of the 19 Hunger Games passages in the top 25 are important plot points, or are perhaps a little inspiring. But many are clearly there because they tap into adolescent ideas of romance.

The fifth-most highlighted passage of Kindle text of all time, for instance, highlighted by 8,500 readers, is

'I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you,' Peeta replies."

Also interesting to note: When you take away The Hunger Games, the top 50 most-highlighted books include just eight other novels written since the start of the 20th century.