Gwendoline Christie Will Replace Lily Rabe as Commander Lyme in 'Mockingjay'

Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones

Breaking News: The Hollywood Reporter says Gwendonline Christie will replace Lily Rabe as Commander Lyme in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. Be sill my fangirl heart!! I love Lily Rabe but I ADORE Gwendoline Christie and think she's a hell of a lot better casting for this role! 

From THR.com:

Gwendoline Christie, who plays the tough warrior Brienne of Tarth on HBO's Game of Thrones, has nabbed another military leader role. The actress will play Commander Lyme in Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2. She's replacing Lily Rabe, who was originally cast in the role.

Rabe had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict with a previous commitment to Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare in the Park.

Lyme is one of the leaders of District 13, the district in the futuristic Panem that is rebelling against the government. She hails from District 2 is a past victor of an unknown Hunger Games.

And as one of our readers (thanks Sabrina) pointed out, technically Commander Lyme is a military Commander and former Victor from District 2 who leads the rebellion in D2. From Mockingjay:

"The commander from 2, a middle aged woman named Lyme. She’s memorable enough, standing over six feet tall and heavily muscled. But it’s only when I see a clip of her in the field, leading a raid on the main entrance of the Nut, that something clicks and I realize I’m in the presence of another victor."

Audio: Josh Hutcherson on Kentucky Sports Radio

Josh Hutcherson was on Kentucky Sports Radio this morning talking about his beloved Wildcats basketball team and I don't believe I've ever heard that boy sound so fired up. As he says several times in the audio, he bleeds blue! Love to hear how he trash talked (trash texted?) with Jennifer Lawrence during one of their big rivalries.

This is audio only.

Panem Propaganda Art on the Mockingjay Set!

Panem banners from the Mockingjay set in AtlantaIt's been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, color us flattered! New photos from the set of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay feature a propaganda poster that is flatteringly close to the one our site co-founder and Art Director Dan McCall designed for our site back in 2012. I guess The Capitol is always watching! Hey Lionsgate, need an art director for your marketing campaign? Call me!

Our original propaganda designs by Dan McCall

New 'Mockingjay' Set Photos Feature Jennifer Lawrence, Capitol Citizens, Peacekeepers

Hooray! New Mockingjay set photos are here! Thanks to the Daily Mail we have a peek at The Hunger Games: Mockingjay set in Atlanta and a tiny sliver of Jennifer Lawrence's beautiful mug inside a voluminous hood (most of the pics feature her stunt double), some Peacekeepers and Capitol citizens.

Looks like Jackson Spidell, who played our District 10 tribute in Catching Fire and was Sam Claflin's stunt double is also playing a Peacekeeper in Mockingjay. He has his helmet off in the photo below.

The large stone objects above are called Czech hedgehogs. They are an anti-tank defense that were widely used by Soviets in World War II. Czech hedgehogs were especially effective in urban combat, where a single hedgehog could block an entire street. They became a symbol of "defence at all cost" in the Soviet Union. Sounds like a perfect fit for The Capitol. (thanks to our followers Don Carpenter and Liam Baker for this info!)

Swan House Preps For 'Mockingjay' Return

Swan House stood in for President Snow's mansion in the Catching Fire party sceneAccess Atlanta's Jennifer Brett was on the Mockingjay set today and she spoke with Jeffrey Ellis of Atlanta Creative Studios, the team responsible for transforming Swan House into President Snow's mansion. Mockingjay will return to film at Swan House in the next week or so.

Workers are putting in long hours to ready Swan House for Mockingjay. All photos Jennifer Brett/AccessAtlanta

From Access Atlanta:

President Snow has some sumptuous accommodations awaiting him in Buckhead as Mockingjay continues filming in Atlanta.

The elegant Swan House, site of a good bit of filming for Catching Fire, is readying for the return of the Hunger Games series.

Catching Fire filmed in areas including the dining room, an outside courtyard and an upstairs room in scenes featuring Donald Sutherland's character, President Snow, along with lead Jennifer Lawrence's character, Katniss Everdeen and others.

This time, workers are prepping a downstairs room to serve as Snow's quarters. The room, normally stately and sort of subdued, has been rendered positively resplendent by Jeffery Ellis and his team at Atlanta Creative Studios.

Jeffrey Ellis preps a room in the Swan House for Mockingjay filming. Photo by Jeenifer Brett/Access Atlanta"We've been busting it," he said, and by that he means working long and hard hours. Initially he thought workers could spray-paint the ceiling and do the detail work by hand. But the Swan House and spray paint have nothing in common. All the work must be done by hand, to protect the interior of the home, on the grounds of the Atlanta History Center.

"They said, you're not spray-painting anything!" Ellis said. He also worked on Catching Fire, and other projects have included The Walking Dead, Zombieland, Stomp the Yard and a number of Tyler Perry productions. He also does corporate work but enjoys the hustle of movie-set design.

"The time element" is the biggest challenge, he said. "They keep changing it. You'll finish and they'll say, 'what about this?'"

There's a joke among folks in his line of work:

Q: How many artistic directors does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Does it have to be a lightbulb? Could we try something else?

You get the idea.

Mockingjay is due to return in the next week or so, and as Ellis' team works inside, a crew outside is prepping some of the exterior areas. The outside of the Swan House was featured extensively in Catching Fire party scenes but Ellis wasn't able to say exactly what will be going on this time. He did salute everyone at the Swan House.

"All the people here are great," he said.

Jena Malone Talks 'Mockingjay' With Cosmo, "I've only been working two days a month."

Jena Malone at the Vanity Fair Oscar party last monthJena Malone recently spoke with Cosmopolitan.com about The Hunger Games, her music career and much more. We loved the tiny tidbit she leaked about only working on Mockingjay two days a month. We were curious why she hadn't been seen on set!

From Cosmopolitan.com:

You know Jena Malone from her movies — Donnie Darko, Sucker Punch, Into the Wild, and of course, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. But when she's not dressed up as a tree and kicking ass as Johanna Mason, Jena has a second career as one half of improvisational pop act The Shoe. Their second album, I'm Okay, drops June 3, and is full of gorgeously melancholy tunes about love. Jena stopped by Cosmopolitan.com to talk about her new record, The Hunger Games, and the age-old Peeta vs. Gale debate.

You just finished shooting Inherent Vice, and you're still working on Mockingjay. How do you also find time to work on your music?

It's been a blessing, because with Hunger Games I have a lot of time off. I've only been working maybe like two days a month on that, so I've had all this time where I can't even really be looking for projects, and I have a lot of space to work on the music.

Read more after the jump!

Click to read more ...

Sam Claflin at 'The Quiet Ones' Premiere in London

Sam Claflin attended the premiere of his new film The Quiet Ones at The Odeon West End in Leicester Square today. Check out some pics and video from the event:

Sam talks about Mockingjay, Finnick and filming in Europe at the end of this video:

Sam and his lovely wife Laura Haddock on the red carpet

Images thanks to MockingjayUpdates and Daily Sam Claflin.

Vote Katniss as Favorite Character in the 2014 MTV Movie Awards

Looks like MTV is throwing Katniss fans a bone by adding a new category to the MTV Movie Awards, Favorite Character. When the nominations for the MTV Movie Awards were announced, Catching Fire nabbed 7 of them, but we were all pretty surprised that Jennifer Lawrence hadn't been nominated as Best Hero for her performance as Katniss. There was even a very successful petition by Sophie Azran to get her added. Is this our compromise?

You can vote for Katniss in the new category Best Character HERE or vote with the hashtags #votekatniss on Twitter, Instagram and Vine. The best photos and videos from your social media will be featured on this page. The winner of this award will be announced on Sunday April 13th.