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Catching Fire Movie News
Entertainment Tonight announced last evening that they'll be airing an exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming The Hunger Games: Catching Fire DVD AND that they'll be revealing the long-awaited release date on their show tonight (Thursday, January 23rd). To find out when ET airs in your neck of the woods use their showfinder.
We'll be updating this post as we find out more!
Thanks to The Hob and their follower Brett Vickerman for the heads up!
To celebrate the upcoming release of their exclusive edition of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on DVD and Blu-Ray, Target has shared some new video of Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone and Alan Ritchson talking about what they'd bring to the Hunger Games arena and some behind the scenes video in the Target exclusive Catching Fire DVD trailer.
Target is featuring an exclusive free fabric poster ($9.99 retail value) with any pre-order purchase, along with the following extas for $24.99:
Target Exclusive (45 minutes of content):
• “ONE VISION” (A FAITHFUL ADAPTATION)--translating Suzanne Collin’s source material to the big screen
• “THE ALLIANCE” (RETURNING CAST)—an inside look at the close-knit relationships of the returning actors
• “FRIEND OR FOE” (NEW CAST)--finding the perfect embodiments of the new characters
Additional Special Features (over 2 hours of content):
• Filmmaker Commentary
• 9-part Making-of Documentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Divergent Sneak Peek
Go to Target.com to pre-order.
The folks at Internet Movie Poster Awards have named The Hunger Games: Catching Fire IMAX poster "Best Special Edition Movie Poster" in their annual contest.
From IMPAwards.com: Inspired by the artwork of Kris Kuksi, this poster places the film's heroine at the forefront of an intricate sculpture filled with so many details that it's hard not to stop and stare at it for a while. It seems to be a propaganda piece that has been subverted by the growing revolution, featuring a winged Katniss standing over a blindfolded President Snow with machine cogs, ominous guards, and implements of torture scattered amongst what otherwise might be a monument to the nobility of the workers. A beautiful and fascinating design.
Thanks to HGGirlOnFire.com for the tip!
While researching our article on Catching Fire production designer Phil Messina, we unearthed some behind the scenes photos from the Catching Fire set at LITEGEAR.com. They had an interesting story on the use of special lighting in the party scene they filmed at Swan House in Atlanta.
From LITEGEAR
For the movie Catching Fire, Production Designer Phil Messina designed a dance floor which had elaborate standing chandeliers which he envisioned hundreds of fluorescent tubes as a large visual element in the set. Phil wanted the tubes to change color during the dance sequence in the film, however fluorescent sources were not an option due to lack of dimming intensity and the need to change color. The scene was going to be shot with a moving camera circling around the dancing actors, so each tube needed to be seen 360 degrees and the tubes needed to be the primary source of lighting. LED options were explored, and LiteGear was on the job.
Blocking the shot with director Francis Lawrence
The Hunger Games director Gary Ross brought Phil Messina on board as Production Designer, and he is remains with the franchise, creating the world in Catching Fire as well as both Mockingjay movies, currently in production. He recently spoke with FlickeringMyth.com about the films, some of the challenges, and hat it was like working with Francis Lawrence who "has become a dear friend of mine."
How it all started:
Gary called me which was in the middle of night my time and said that he was going on this film called Hunger Games [2012]. I had never heard of it. Gary was probably the most excited about it than I had heard of any one director and he had the script emailed to me. I had to go work in the morning but I read it all night. Suzanne [Collins] was part of the process the entire time so there wasn’t a dichotomy between script and book. When questions came up in our work about how things were organized or what things should look it we often went back to the book. In fact we still do. I’m working on Mockingjay 1 [2014] and 2 [2015] right now so at the end of this I’ve would have done all four Hunger Games films. I have dog-eared pages of all three books in my office that we’re constantly referring back to try to keep it straight.”
Working with director Francis Lawrence on Catching Fire:
“When I found out about the second film Gary was going to direct it and he was the one who asked me back,” recalls Phil Messina. “When he decided not to do the film it was an odd couple of weeks where Producer Nina Jacobson was persuasive in saying, ‘We want the continuity since we’re bringing in an unknown entity at this point.’ They hadn’t hired a director yet. I was caught by surprise and they were all reacting in real time. I was literally reading the movie headlines a couple times a day to see who was in the lead to do our film. I had not worked with Francis [Lawrence] before nor had any contact with him. I took our first meeting as if I was interviewing for the job. If Francis wanted to go in a different direction or it wasn’t going to work out personality wise I would have bowed out. We had a wonderful connection and he has become a dear friend of mine.”
Photo courtesy litegear.com
On creating Panem:
“There are a lot of different ways you can go,” explains Phil Messina. “There is the Star Trek, Star Wars and Oblivion that's high tech futuristic which is an amazing look. But with ours it was important for it to be accessible, and feel like a world that could easily develop in the not so distant future. Suzanne described this world as having no satellites or Internet. It’s not so futuristic, but a parallel society that would have developed given a different set of circumstances. That’s what I found interesting in the world. How do things develop if XYZ...? Those are some of the factors that we’re dealing with every day.” Cities don’t grow from one place. What we tried to bring to it was a visual harmony of a singular idea but also things are built at different times. It doesn’t all go up in the same five or ten years. It had developed over a certain amount of time. In Catching Fire we have more of the Capitol shown than in Hunger Games, but in Mockingjay, especially in the second film, it's like being on the streets of the Capitol. We’re using some locations in Europe, especially in Paris and Berlin. We tried to use places that felt architecturally relevant to our film and also felt real. One thing that Francis wanted was to be on real streets; he didn’t want to be on the back lot with fake buildings so we are in a lot of real locations and I find that exciting.”
On the Districts:
“Every district has a specific purpose which has a specific resource that serves the capital,” states Phil Messina. “Katniss [Jennifer Lawrence] is from the mining district which Suzanne wrote as being in the Appalachian Mountains so we naturally drew from the coal mines from West Virginia." The production designer drew upon his own childhood. “For the textile district I grew up in a mill town called Lawrence, Massachusetts which at the turn of the last century was the textile centre of the world. In Catching Fire when we had to create the textile district for a brief scene I knew exactly where to draw from. The transportation district we used a lot of trains. We tried to stay mostly in the U.S. and not to draw from too many European influences. We tried to make it American feeling. Logging and lumber is from the Pacific Northwest. Suzanne had marked out a map of Panem where each of these resources came from and were based on American history. It became easy to think of the next step and start creating the visuals for them.” (insert personal freak out - WHERE IS THIS MAP??)
On Catching Fire:
"It looks beautiful and the world looks real. The shot selections were great and it tells a story.” Messina adds, “I’m proud about the work I did with Gary on the first one and I’m proud of the work I’ve done on Catching Fire with Francis. I’ve seen Catching Fire several times already and it’s fantastic. I’m glad to continue to be part of this franchise.”
Read the rest of the really interesting interview HERE. Phil talks more about the Hunger Games weapons, working with CG and shooting in the jungle.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has made history by becoming the first film with a solo-female lead to top the year end box office.
The movie made a massive $409.4 million, surpassing Iron Man 3, which earned $409 million through tickets sales, reports Huffington Post.
"The Hunger Games franchise continues to evolve into a truly global phenomenon," said Lionsgate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer in a statement.
"The success of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a testament to the vision of author Suzanne Collins, the sure hand of director Francis Lawrence, the brilliant performances of a remarkably talented cast led by the amazing Jennifer Lawrence and superb execution by our motion picture production, marketing and distribution teams.
“We will continue to grow the transformative Hunger Games franchise in the years to come even as we continue to develop a dynamic portfolio of premium new brands."
Catching Fire is the first film in four decades to have a woman as a lead to finish top, the previous movie was 1973 thriller The Exorcist, with Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn in the leads.
via YahooUK
The BBFC ratings website has offered a bit of new info regarding what will be on the soon to be released Catching Fire Blu-ray/DVD extras, at least the UK version.
There will be 5 deleted scenes, totalling 5 minutes in length:
THE HOB - SCENE 8 (00:21)
TRAIN STATION - SCENE 62 (00:23)
A WRINKLE - SCENE 81 (01:42)
SWITCHING ENVELOPES - SCENE 84 (01:04)
FINNICK TIES THE KNOT - SCENE 119 (00:56)
The SURVIVING THE GAME - MAKING THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE making-of documentary will be 144 minutes long and will consist of the following:
A NEW KIND OF HUNGER - CONTINUING THE SAGA
VISUAL VOCABULARY: BUILDING A WORLD
STIRRING THINGS UP: THE CAST
FASHION FORWARD: MAKE-UP, COSTUME AND HAIR
LET IT FLY: PRODUCTION IN ATLANTA
MOVES AND COUNTERMOVES: STUNTS & WEAPONS
TICK TOCK: PRODUCTION IN HAWAII
THREADING THE NEEDLE: POST-PRODUCTION
THE REVOLUTION LIVES: REFLECTIONS & LOOKING FORWARD
We're still holding out hope that there's going to be a rooftop deleted scene scene in there somewhere!
Thanks to AntonVolk for the info!
Catching Fire has officially passed Iron Man 3 to become the top grossing film of 2013 in the US. With a domestic take of $409,392,651 as of January 9th, Catching Fire edges out Iron Man 3's $409,013,994.
If you're really into the numbers, Catching Fire has made $423,400,000 internationally thus far, for a total of $832,792,651 worldwide. Iron Man 3's worldwide gross still beats that at $1,215,439,994.
Catching Fire has won a Golden Tomato from Rotten Tomatoes in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category. The 15th Annual Golden Tomato Awards honor the best-reviewed movies of 2013, and Catching Fire holds the #1 spot in the category with a Rotten Tomatoes fresh score of 89%.
Last year, The Hunger Games was the third best reviewed Sci-Fi/Fantasy film with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 84%.
No surprise to anyone here, Catching Fire was named Favorite Year End Movie at last night's People's Choice Awards. Congrats Catching Fire!
Trish Summervile and one of President Snow's suits. Photo courtesy The Hollywood ReporterNominees for the 16th Costume Designers Guild Awards, which celebrate excellence in film, television and commercial costume design, were announced today, and Trish Summerville has been nominated for Excellence in Fantasy Film for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire! The winners of the seven competitive awards will be revealed at the gala on Saturday, Feb.22 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Congrats and best of luck, Trish!
EXCELLENCE IN FANTASY FILM
Trish Summerville poses with the Net-A-Porter Mockingjay dress and costume designer Michael Wilkinson (American Hustle). Photo by Joe Pugliese
Costume designer Trish Summerville revealed some of the inspiration behind the looks she created for Catching Fire in a recent THR.com article.
Trish Summerville and one of President Snow's suits. Photo by Joe PuglieseSummerville jumped from styling music stars (Pink, No Doubt) to big-budget movies in 2011, when she nailed the punky garb for David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, for which she won a Costume Designers Guild Award. Now she's gone futuristic for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, with jaw-dropping ball gowns for Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), Cerre leather moto jackets for Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and hyper-designed Alexander McQueen dresses (including one with trembling butterflies) for Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks). The biggest challenge? Outfitting the Games contestants, who all are in unitard-like sweatsuits that had to fit 24 different body types ranging from age 19 to 79. Says Summerville, "The shoes also had to be things they could swim in and run on lava rock."
Katniss and Peeta Win MTV’s Best Movie Couple of 2013
From MTV.com
MTV asked their faithful, good-looking and pop-culture savvy readers (that would be you) who the best couple in 2013 movies was. The competition was heated — could the dark horse McBride/Channing pairing come from behind? Would Team Gale win a tangle with Team Peeta? — but in the end, there could only be one winner.
The votes are in, and the people have spoken: Katniss and Peeta, the star-crossed victors/lovers of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire have won. As it turns out, the odds were ever in their favor. Ever in your favor, at the very least.
According to Yahoo Movies UK, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has made a more than significant contribution to what seems a bumper year for Hollywood.
2013 will be the most successful in commercial terms for Hollywood in its entire history, with the takings in the United States alone exceeding any figure ever achieved. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has made a massive contribution to the roughly $11 billion worth of takings that Hollywood managed in 2013, the biggest in the history of cinema in the United States.
The second Hunger Games movie has been a significant part of this success story, with the US takings for the Francis Lawrence directed movie nearing $400 million. The film will finish 2013 as the second most successful movie of the year in commercial terms, and may yet top the $1 billion barrier worldwide which was considered an extremely optimistic and ambitious target for the movie.
Additionally, the performance of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire worldwide has been excellent, with the film penetrating major markets all over the globe. For example, it was announced this week that Catching Fire was the second most successful movie in Australia this year, just passing the third movie on the list, Despicable Me 2, with literally days left in the calendar year.
After initially experiencing something of a soft landing in the Far East, Catching Fire has also started to make good money in Japan, which has helped the movie exceed the $400 million in international takings, and the $800 million overall. Catching Fire remains in the top five or six movies in most countries in the world, showing that is has been an extremely durable performer.
With takings in Hollywood having sunk in recent years, the excellent takings from 2013 will be a great relief to studios who now have to compete with a multitude of other entertainment. With Catching Fire having done so well in 2013, it will be hoped that Mockingjay makes a similarly big splash next year.
Reporting by Christoper Morris - YahooUK
People's Choice Awards have added a new category this year, Favorite Year End Movie, and Catching Fire is among the eligible movies. You can vote for Catching Fire through the first hour of the People's Choice Awards, which airs Wednesday, January 8th at 9/8c on CBS.
Click HERE to vote for Catching Fire!
From Rolling Stone:
After a botched start that included a round of "Fix You," Coldplay's Chris Martin led his band into their first-ever live performance of "Atlas" last night in London. The song is Coldplay's contribution to the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Soundtrack.
Bathed in blue light, a very sweaty Martin looked relieved as the band kicked into the song together. As he began singing the opening lines – "Some saw the sun, some saw the smoke" – the audience joined in just as loud. As the song built, Martin sang "carry the world" while guitarist Jonny Buckland coaxed some plaintive notes from his instrument. The performance went so well, unlike that of their previous song, that Martin jumped up from his piano with an ear-to-ear smile and did a little victory lap on the stage.
The performance was part of an event Coldplay organized called "Under 1 Roof," and it also featured sets by Lily Allen, Robbie Williams and Ricky Gervais as his Office character David Brent, among others. The concert benefitted Kids Company, a U.K. organization that provides "practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city kids."
SoundWorks Collection talks with Catching Fire Director Francis Lawerence and Jeremy Peirson (Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, Supervising Sound Editor) about the sound teams work to create the sounsdscape of the film, and why they chose Dolby Atmos. Dolby Atmos creates a more lifelike audio experience with localized sounds in front, beside, behind, and on top of the audience. According to Lawrence, Atmos is “the best sound system out there, the best system to work in, and the best soundscape.”
TIME has named Katniss Everdeen among their list of the 11 most influential fictional characters of 2013.
From TIME:
Beyond leading Catching Fire to a gross of $600 million—and counting—the Hunger Games heroine (played by Jennifer Lawrence) is also inspiring several real-world product lines. Among them: the Nerf Rebelle line of guns, quivers and crossbows for girls, Lucas Hugh “Capitol Label” workout clothes, and a makeup line from CoverGirl.
We also think her demolishing gender biases and being a self-sacrificing, heroic every-woman revolutionary might have a wee bit to do with her overall influence. Go Katniss!
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) has announced the nominees for The 19th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has been nominated for three awards: Best Action Movie, Best Actress in an Action Movie (Jennifer Lawrence) and Best Song for Atlas by Coldplay. Jen is also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress and Best Acting Ensemble categories for American Hustle.
The winners will be announced live at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards ceremony on Thursday, January 16, 2014 from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. The show will be broadcast live on The CW Network at 8:00 PM ET/PT. Two hour pre-show coverage will also air in various local markets before the awards ceremony.
Good luck! And hopefully this means another opportunity to gaze upon our lovely Jennifer Lawrence! Yeah, I said it.
BEST ACTION MOVIE
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Iron Man 3
Lone Survivor
Rush
Star Trek into Darkness
BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Evangeline Lilly – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Gwyneth Paltrow – Iron Man 3
BEST SONG
Atlas – Coldplay – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Happy – Pharrell Williams – Despicable Me 2
Let It Go – Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez – Frozen
Ordinary Love – U2 – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Please Mr. Kennedy – Justin Timberlake/Oscar Isaac/Adam Driver – Inside Llewyn Davis
Young and Beautiful – Lana Del Rey – The Great Gatsby
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Scarlett Johansson – Her
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts – August: Osage County
June Squibb – Nebraska
Oprah Winfrey – Lee Daniels’ The Butler
