HQ Version of the 'Catching Fire' Spinning Cornucopia TV Spot, "Chosen Skill"

The HQ version of that spinning cornucopia Catching Fire TV spot is finally available. Check out "Chosen Skill."

International version thanks to Anton Volkov!

Fansite Exclusive: Sam Claflin and Jena Malone On 'Catching Fire'

One of the coolest things about being a fansite (ok, THE coolest, without a doubt) is that sometimes you get to have amazing experiences like the one we had yesterday morning. We were invited to an exclusive fansite phone interview with Sam Claflin (Finnick) and Jena Malone (Johanna) from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. We actually got to speak to them ON THE PHONE. And they were just as charming, funny and thoughtful as you would have hoped. These two care deeply about the characters that we love so much. Read on and see what your favorite fansites asked Jena and Sam and, more importantly, their insightful and hilarious answers. (deep lunges)

Oh, and NBD, but Sam and Jena sang Happy Birthday to our own Samantha at the end of the call. Whatever. (FANGIRL EXPLOSION)

PanemPropaganda.com:

When you were working on your roles, did you speak to anyone, or consider for yourself, what kind of background your characters had outside the Games? Things like family or friendships they may have had back in their Districts, and how did that affect the development of your characters?

Jena: Yeah! The book is SO rich, even though it doesn’t go into specifics about what these characters have gone through, you can pick through, and there are sentences that, really, for an actor, are goldmines. It’s like a doorway you go through, and there’s a whole house inside there. Suzanne Collins created stories that, I feel like as an actor, are like candy. There was so much to work with. And Francis was constantly providing us more information. Even just really understanding who these people were, giving us essays on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and all of these different things to research. I feel like we had so much to go in and paint with. It was kind of amazing.

Sam: Lynn Cohen, who plays Mags, and I spent a few weeks during the preparation time discussing our relationship, coming to the decision that she was more of a mother to Finnick. He was kind of an orphan, we decided. She was his mentor when he was in the Games, and everything that happened since, obviously, leading up to Catching Fire, her volunteering for Annie Cresta, etc. Finnick’s past and his history is mentioned in Mockingjay. There is a very, very dark history painted for him, and I got to talk that through, not only with Lynn Cohen, but with Francis, like Jena said, and everyone else as well. It was easy for me to sort of mold ideas.

There is SO much more of this interview after the jump. Please read on....

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US Weekly 'Catching Fire' Special Edition Scans

Thanks to lawrence-daily and strawberrycupcakeprincess on tumblr (thanks for the scans!), we can show you some peeks at the US Weekly Special Catching Fire Edition. The issue should hit November 1st, but it looks as though some people are getting their copies early. If you pre-ordered the issue on BN.com, keep an eye on your mailbox! We did, and we'll have the HQ scans for you as soon as we get the magazine- plus some issues to give away. We've lightened and sharpened them up as much as possible. Stay tuned for the HQ versions.

We're loving the pic of Johanna. We've heard there's something changing in the way they do the interview sequence with her, and this looks like it might be part of that moment. And Peeta being painted by the morphling?? I need to go lie down now.

More pics after the jump!

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Jena on Johanna from EW

When we first meet Johanna Mason, a ferocious, ax-wielding victor from District 7, it's on an elevator with Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta. She stares down the trio and proceeds to strip naked. "It's one of the best introductions to a character ever," says 28-year-old actress Jena Malone (Donnie Darko). "I had to learn how to do a striptease in four seconds."

For Malone, Johanna defies expectations for women in genre films. "She's not just another badass sexy female," she says. "Her sexuality is a weapon. Her humor is a weapon. They're part of her process of coping with the fact that she killed all her friends in her own Hunger Games." Malone can't shake one particular scene in which her entire body is drenched in blood. "I felt like this gladiator," she says. "The cameras would cut and I would still have this crazy energy surging through me. Johanna took over."


From EW's October 11 "Catching Fire" special issue.

New 'Catching Fire' Posters Revealed

Select movie theatres in the US have begun using Catching Fire drink cups and popcorn buckets featuring Katniss and the Catching Fire mockingjay logo, AND a QR code that unlocks these exclusive new posters. Thanks to our friends at QuarterQuell.org,  we've got our first look at the new Catching Fire posters. According to the admin on this facebook page, you can also unlock the "four note" ringtone with the QR code. Time to head to a movie! 

Many thanks to QuarterQuell.org, THG Italia, and MyNameIsKatnissEverdeenMockingjay (who actually did all the scanning and unlocking!)

Some movie theaters in America have begun using custom Catching Fire popcorn buckets and soda cups. As well as being decorated with the poster and an image of Katniss, they also have a QR code, which can be scanned to reveal new character images! - See more at: http://www.quarterquell.org/2013/09/catching-fire-popcorn-buckets-reveal.html#sthash.8QzeJt91.dpuf

Some movie theaters in America have begun using custom Catching Fire popcorn buckets and soda cups. As well as being decorated with the poster and an image of Katniss, they also have a QR code, which can be scanned to reveal new character images! - See more at: http://www.quarterquell.org/2013/09/catching-fire-popcorn-buckets-reveal.html#sthash.8QzeJt91.dpuf

Some movie theaters in America have begun using custom Catching Fire popcorn buckets and soda cups. As well as being decorated with the poster and an image of Katniss, they also have a QR code, which can be scanned to reveal new character images! - See more at: http://www.quarterquell.org/2013/09/catching-fire-popcorn-buckets-reveal.html#sthash.8QzeJt91.dpuf

'Catching Fire' Costume Designer Trish Summerville on Her Favorite Costumes From The Movie

Catching Fire costume designer Trish Summerville received the Costume Designer of the Year Award for film at last night's 10th Annual Style Awards, which kicked off Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York City.

Here's what she had to say about her favorite pieces from Catching Fire:

“Probably the two pieces are Johanna’s chariot costume and also Katniss’ [at] President Snow’s gala; the Victory Tour party costume. It’s embroidered in the shape of feathers and flames. And then Johanna’s chariot costume is a bodysuit that has three-dimensional printing on it, and a leather corset inspired by — because she’s from the lumber district — so the corset looks like a tree. We literally took pieces of bark off of a tree and headed to a printer to have them scan it and make all of the pieces look like bark.”

Thanks to HG Girl On Fire for this info!

Victors Revealed on The Hunger Games Explorer: Johanna

Remember who the enemy is....

Early reveal! We thought the reveal was supposed to be at NOON today, but it looks like Johanna has arrived early to The Hunger Games Explorer banner.

Jena Malone on Her Transformation to Johanna Mason in 'Catching Fire'

Photo by Jena Malone

Jena Malone talked with Vogue about getting into her character, Johanna Mason both physically and mentally.

the hardest thing about being Johanna was finding a way to carry her energy in my body for sixteen hours a day. She has this anger that is always bubbling at the surface.

 

To whip her into shape for her role as Johanna Mason, the cunning District 7 tribute in the second installment of The Hunger Games trilogy (due out in November), actress Jena Malone required a fleet of fitness pros: A stunt team to provide her with the martial arts training she’d need for the film’s challenging action sequences—shot across land and water in Hawaii earlier this year—and a personal trainer to sculpt her body into a formidable fighting machine. “She has this intensity,” says Malone of her character’s steely physical and mental fortitude. “She can walk into a room and stare you to death.”
 
With that in mind, on-set makeup artist Nikoletta Skarlatos gave Johanna extreme lashes and heavily shadowed lids in shades of “warrior” green and gold for her early scenes in Panem’s Capitol; the choppy brunette bob she adopts later in the wild, on the other hand, was Malone’s own handiwork. “I cut it [myself],” she admits with a laugh.
 
Now that shooting has finally wrapped, the 28-year-old actress is currently back home in Los Angeles, where she has recently finished work on another project: Paul Thomas Anderson’s forthcoming Inherent Vice, a film that has ushered in yet another beauty transformation this summer—her newly honey-blonde hair. 

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