VIDEO: Suzanne Collins Read Every Day PSA

The Scholastic Channel just released a PSA by Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins about the importance of reading everyday. Take a look:

Lenny Kravitz To Perform on the CMT Music Awards

It's a Lenny Kravitz kind of day today. Lenny (Cinna) is scheduled to perform at the CMT Awards Wednesday, June 5th at 8/7c on CMT:

Lenny Kravitz and Nelly will perform Wednesday (June 5) during the 2013 CMT Music Awards. With Kravitz performing with awards show co-host Jason Aldean and Nelly teaming with Florida Georgia Line on their crossover hit "Cruise," the performances continue the history of cross-genre mashups at the CMT Music Awards.

VIDEO: Lenny Kravitz on 'Oprah's Master Class'

Lenny Kravitz (Cinna) was featured on Oprah's Master Class on Sunday, June 2nd. He spoke intimately about his life, his family, and the challenges of growing up in a multi-racial household. It's a real pleasure to get such a heartfelt glimpse into Lenny's life! 

New Portrait of Francis Lawrence at Cannes

The Hollywood Reporter just released 50 never before seen portraits of celebrities at the Cannes Film Festival and Francis Lawrence was among them:

Francis Lawrence was in Cannes to promote The Hunger Games: Catching Fire to international buyers. The sequel to The Hunger Games will see the return of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, the strong-willed girl who won the deadly games in the first installment.

Happy Birthday Willow Shields!

Happy 13th birthday to our Prim, Willow Shields! 

Suzanne Collins Plans to Write Another YA Series

Suzanne Collins and Walter Dean Myers at BEA

Stop the presses! Or start them - please! Suzanne Collins is at BookExpo America in New York this week to promote her upcoming children's book Year of the Jungle, and she revealed to USA Today that she has plans to write another teen series. But first she has to work on a couple little projects called Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2:

Suzanne Collins, author of the best-selling The Hunger Games trilogy, plans to write another teen series but isn't ready to reveal more.

First, she says, she's consulting on the scripts for the third and fourth film adaptations of her dystopian series that has more than 50 million copies in print. (Catching Fire, the second movie, again starring Jennifer Lawrence, will be released Nov. 22. And nearly four years after the book's publication, the paperback of Catching Fire finally hits stores Tuesday. Mockingjay, the series finale, will be split into two films, out in 2014 and 2015).

On Sept. 10, Collins releases an autobiographical picture book, Year of the Jungle, illustrated by James Proimos, about her memories of 1968, when she was 6, and her father had "to go to something called a war…in a place called Vietnam." At a discussion Thursday night on writing about war for young readers, sponsored by her publisher, Scholastic, Collins said if kids "have no idea what propaganda is, how will you ever know when it's being used against you?"

She was joined by Walter Dean Myers, whose World War II novel, Invasion (out Oct. 1), is a prequel to Fallen Angels (about Vietnam) and Sunrise Over Fallujah (Iraq). Myers, whose brother was killed in Vietnam and whose son served in Iraq, was asked why he keeps writing novels that depict the horrors of war. He replied, "because we keep having wars." 

Scans of 'Catching Fire' Article In Empire Magazine July 2013 Issue

Empire Magazine has a feature in their July 2013 Issue called, "Hungry For More? Director Francis Lawrence on Katniss' Return in Catching Fire." Here are the magazine scans:

 

Woody Harrelson Talks 'Catching Fire' & Francis Lawrence With HitFix

Woody Harrelson (Haymitch) is doing a bunch of press for his new movie Now You See Me, and inevitably the interviewer touches on Catching Fire (Yes!). Woody talks about Francis Lawrence as a director and a little about the movie: 

Well, there may have been no one, other than Lionsgate execs or something, more distraught than me when Gary Ross left. I was REALLY distraught because I love that guy. But I gotta say, Francis, he's fantastic. He's just a real gentleman, he's a super fun guy, and a great, great director. I mean, really knows what he wants, really understands action. Believe me, the whole Hunger Games franchise will not suffer from having him at the helm. He's just great. I haven't seen the second one so I better save these comments 'til later. But I heard it's great.