Suzanne Collins and Francis Lawrence Talk to Time Magazine Part 2

Check out Part 2 of Time's 5 part interview with Catching Fire author Suzanne Collins and the movie's director Francis Lawrence. Read Part 1 HERE.

TIME: Francis, what sold you on Catching Fire? What made you want to make this movie?
Francis Lawrence: The stories in general I loved. The theme and the idea of the consequence of war and what that does to people and how people are affected by war and by violence. I just thought that there’s not many of these YA stories that really come from a real idea and a strong, topical, relatable idea. Then I had the opportunity with Catching Fire to sort of open the world up. Part of what I love to do is creation, and there was a bunch of world creation done in the first one, but there was more opportunity — we were going to see more of the Capitol, more of 12, lots of other districts. There was a brand-new arena that had nothing to do with the first arena. So there was a lot visually for me to sink my teeth into.

Did you feel as though you wanted to keep to the same kind of visual style and visual vocabulary that [Hunger Games director] Gary [Ross] had established?
FL: I think it would have been a little bit of a mistake to entirely throw out an approach to a movie when it’s a franchise. I would never do that to a franchise. But in saying that, I thought there were some opportunities to open up the scope in terms of the costumes and the visual effects and just geography in general. I liked Gary’s naturalistic approach. I have my own version of it, my own style. I don’t shoot the way he does, I choose different kinds of lenses, and part of that is to feel more intimate with characters while still maintaining a sense of place. So I have a different approach, but I kept the same production designer on, because he designed the Capitol, and those aesthetics should carry through. And even the other districts, there should still be aesthetic unity all the way through that I wanted to make sure we maintained.

Read more after the jump.

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Jena Malone and Sam Claflin at the Catching Fire Premiere in Toronto

Sam Claflin and Jena Malone made their way from Los Angeles to Toronto today for the Catching Fire premiere in Canada! The whirlwind tour continues.

VIDEO: Jeffrey Wright Talks Catching Fire on Chelsea Lately

Jeffrey Wright appeared on Chelsea Lately last night to talk about the infamous cricket-filled Tiffany box he gave to Jennifer Lawrence and going "commando."

VIDEO: Elizabeth Banks on Ellen

Elizabeth Banks was on Ellen to promote The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, talking about the film’s intensity and wearing Effie Trinket’s wardrobe. 

Josh Hutcherson Talks 'Catching Fire' on GMA

Josh Hutcherson took a red eye right after the Catching Fire premiere last night to get to New York in time for a bunch of appearances this week. First up, GMA. Josh talks about Catching Fire, praises the cast and crew, talks about how Peeta has grown, his relationship with Katniss, how he relates to Peeta and what Jennifer Lawrence is really like. They also showed a clip with Peeta and Katniss on the train to the Capitol.

VIDEO: 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Los Angeles Red Carpet Interviews

The cast of Catching Fire did SO many interviews on the red carpet last night. Check out a round up of them!

 Videos from MTV, Access Hollywood, PopSugar and E! Online after the jump!

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'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Los Angeles Premiere

 

We are still in shock after attending The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Los Angeles premiere and after party last night. We even got to be a part of the Yahoo red carpet live stream! You can check it out here. We're about 1:24 mark on the video.

It was an unforgettable night that we're still trying to process. The movie is going to blow you away. No spoilers here, but it's probably one of the best book to movie adaptations ever!

Check out pics of the cast (and Suzanne Collins!) on the red carpet last night. 

 

 

Bruno Gunn

Meta Golding

Alan Ritchson

Stephanie Leigh Schlund

Our Mags, Lynn Cohen on the red carpet

Stef Dawson - our Annie Cresta!

Suzanne Collins and Francis Lawrence Talk to Time Magazine Part 1

TIME talks to the writer-creator of The Hunger Games and the director of Catching Fire —  Part 1 in an exclusive five-part series. The interview has been divided into five parts, running Monday through Friday.

Compare Katniss at the beginning of Hunger Games and Katniss at the beginning of this movie. How is she different now?
Francis Lawrence: Well, Katniss is different because she’s been through the games. I think that was one of the things that really interested me most about the material and about this book was that we get to start to see the kind of effects that the games have on people, the effects that violence has on people.

How do you show that change?
FL: Even though she’s in the place she loves in the forest, I think that there’s a look to her, I would call it the thousand-yard stare. She’s still disturbed by things, and can’t get certain thoughts and images out of her head. And pretty quickly she has flashbacks to the games, within minutes of the opening.

Suzanne Collins: She’s got a lot of classic post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. She has nightmares. She has flashbacks. And in the beginning you can see she’s practicing avoidance. She’s completely pushed Peeta to arm’s length, you know? She’s trying to stay away from him. Why? Because everything associated with him except some very early childhood memories are associated with the Games. She’s conflicted to some degree about her relationship with Prim because she couldn’t save Rue. So she’s dealing with all that, and her method of dealing with it is to go to the woods and be alone and keep all of that as far away as possible, because there just are so many triggers in her everyday life.

But of course, what happens right at the story is it’s beginning of the Victory Tour, and that means that she’s going to have to go to every district and stand there and look at the families of the dead children. Some of them in some districts, like District 1, she killed both tributes. She killed both Marvel and Glimmer. So it’s this nightmare waiting to happen. And then just to make it extra awful, Snow visits her with the threat, so she’s something of a wreck at the beginning.

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