The Hunger Games (2012 Film) Gary Ross

Development

In March 2009, Lions Gate Entertainment (known as Lionsgate) entered into a co-production agreement for The Hunger Games with Nina Jacobson's production company Color Force, which had acquired worldwide distribution rights to the novel a few weeks earlier,[8][9] reportedly for $200,000.[10] Alli Shearmur and Jim Miller, president and senior vice president of motion picture production at Lionsgate, took charge of overseeing the production of the film, which they described as "an incredible property ... a thrill to bring home to Lionsgate".[11] The studio, which had not made a profit for five years, raided the budgets of other productions and sold assets to secure a budget of $88,000,000 for the film.[12][10][13] Suzanne Collins' agent Jason Dravis remarked that "they [Lionsgate] had everyone but the valet call us" to help secure the franchise.[13] Lionsgate subsequently acquired tax breaks of $8 million for shooting the film in North Carolina.[13] Gary Ross, Sam Mendes, David Slade, Andrew Adamson, Susanna White, Rupert Sanders and Francis Lawrence were listed as possible directing candidates, but in the end, Ross was announced as the film's director in November 2010.[14][15] Ross became interested in directing the film after his agent notified him about that a film adaptation of The Hunger Games was in development; having heard about the book due to his children reading it, Ross read the book quickly and called his agent to tell her that he wanted the job.[16]

Ross had many conversations with Collins about how to adapt the story, and was fascinated by how Ancient Roman culture inspired the books.[16] Collins adapted the novel for film herself,[8] in collaboration with screenwriter Billy Ray and Ross.[17][18] The screenplay remains extremely faithful to the original novel,[19] with Ross saying he "felt the only way to make the film really successful was to be totally subjective", echoing Collins' presentation of the novel in the first person present.[20] Ross felt that, to preserve the novel's first person point of view, the audience could know little more than what protagonist Katniss Everdeen knows about the story's developments.[16] Instead of presenting Katniss' internal monologues about the Capitol's machinations through actual monologues or voice-over narrations, the screenplay expanded on the character of Seneca Crane, the Head Gamemaker, to allow several developments for which Katniss is not present to be shown directly to the audience. Ross explained, "In the book, Katniss speculates about the game-makers' manipulations ... in the film, we can't get inside Katniss's head, but we do have the ability to cut away and actually show the machinations of the Capitol behind the scenes. I created the game centre and also expanded the role of Seneca Crane for those reasons. I thought it was totally important."[20] Ross also added several scenes between Crane and Coriolanus Snow, the elderly President of Panem, noting that "I thought that it was very interesting that there would be one generation [of Panem citizens] who knew that [the Games] were actually an instrument of political control, and there would be a successive generation who was so enamoured with the ratings and the showbiz and the sensations and the spectacle that was subsuming the actual political intention, and that's really where the tension is".[21]

The Gamemakers' control center, about which Katniss can only speculate in the novel, was also developed as a location, helping to remind the audience of the artificial nature of the arena. Ross commented, "so much of the film happens in the woods that it's easy to forget this is a futuristic society, manipulating these events for the sake of an audience. The look of the control center, the antiseptic feeling of it and the use of holograms were all intended to make the arena feel 'constructed' even when you weren't seeing the control room."[20] Ross and visual effects supervisor Sheena Duggal were keen to use the omniscient view that the setting provided to justify the literal dei ex machina Katniss experiences in the arena; Duggal explained that "we really didn't want to have to explain things ... how do you get compelled by these [animals] that just appear at the end of the movie? We wanted to find a way to introduce them without having to explain specifically and exactly what they were and the game room was a really great opportunity for us to be able to do that."[22]

Casting

Ross had a general idea of who he wanted to cast in some roles, but the studio insisted on holding auditions for the roles, which he accepted. He found the castings of Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne "honestly easy".[16] Lionsgate confirmed in March 2011 that about 30 actresses auditioned or read for the role of Katniss Everdeen, including Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Emma Roberts, Alyson Stoner,[23] Saoirse Ronan, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jodelle Ferland, Lyndsy Fonseca, Emily Browning, Shailene Woodley, Kaya Scodelario and Troian Bellisario.[4][24] On March 16, 2011, it was announced that Jennifer Lawrence (who was at the time filming for X-Men: First Class) had landed the role.[25] Feeling that Lawrence "blew the doors off the place",[16] Ross described Lawrence as having "an incredible amount of self-assuredness, you got the sense that this girl knew exactly who she was. And then she came in and read for me and just knocked me out; I'd never seen an audition like that before in my life. It was one of those things where you just glimpse your whole movie in front of you."[22]

Though Lawrence was 20 when filming began, four years older than the character,[26] Collins said that the role demanded "a certain maturity and power" and said she would rather the actress be older than younger.[27] She added that Lawrence was the "only one who truly captured the character I wrote in the book" and that she had "every essential quality necessary to play Katniss".[28] Lawrence, a fan of the books, was originally intimidated by the size of the production, and took three days to accept the role.[4][29]

Contenders for the role of Peeta other than Josh Hutcherson, included Alexander Ludwig, Hunter Parrish, Lucas Till and Evan Peters.[30] Ross felt that Hutcherson was a "pitch perfect".[16] Other actors considered for the role of Gale Hawthorne included David Henrie, Drew Roy and Robbie Amell before Liam Hemsworth was cast.[30] In April 2011, John C. Reilly was in talks with Lionsgate to portray Haymitch Abernathy.[31] The following month, Lionsgate announced that the role had gone to Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson.[32] Harrelson initially passed on the role, but Ross called him up and convinced him to accept the role.[16] The casting of Grammy winner Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, and Toby Jones as Claudius Templesmith, soon followed.[33] Tucci and Ross had previously worked together in The Tale of Despereaux, leading Tucci to immediately accept the role of Flickerman when Ross offered it to him in an Italian restaurant of New York City during New Year's Eve.[16] Multiple-Golden Globe Award winner Donald Sutherland was cast as President Coriolanus Snow in late May 2011.[33] Following his casting, Sutherland wrote Ross a letter explaining him how much his role meant to the narrative, which impressed Ross and led him to incorporate some of Sutherland's suggestions to Snow's scenes in the film.[16]

Filming

Fireman's Fund Insurance Company insured the production, but as part of the underwriting process, insisted on a thorough risk analysis of hazards as diverse as wayward arrows, poison ivy, bears, bugs and a chase across fast-running water.[34]

Lawrence dyed her naturally blonde hair dark for the part of Katniss.[35] Other stars who dyed their hair for the movie include Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Liam Hemsworth as Gale.[4] Lawrence also underwent extensive training to get in shape for the role, including archery, rock and tree climbing, combat, running, parkour and yoga.[36] On the last day of her six-week training phase, she had an accident in which she hit a wall while running at full speed, but was not seriously injured.[4] Lionsgate hired Olympic bronze medal-winning archer Khatuna Lorig to teach Lawrence how to shoot.[34]

With an initial budget of $75 million,[37] principal photography began near Brevard in Transylvania County in Western North Carolina in May 2011[38] and concluded on September 15, 2011, with a final budget reported as between $90 and $100 million, reduced to $78 million after subsidies.[4] Steven Soderbergh served as a second unit director,[39] and filmed much of the District 11 riot scene.[40] The movie was shot on film as opposed to digital, due in part to the tightness of the schedule; as Ross said in an interview with The New York Times, "I didn't want to run the risk of the technical issues that often come with shooting digitally—we simply couldn't afford any delays."[41]

Virtually all production photography took place in North Carolina, with Lionsgate receiving tax credits of around $8 million from the state government to do so. Most outdoor scenes, both from the arena and from the outskirts of District 12, were filmed in DuPont State Forest; the Little River, with its multiple waterfalls, provided several locations for shooting the river running through the arena.[42] To run across Triple Falls, Lawrence was attached to wires and ran on a board.[43]

Many of the urban and interior locations, in the Capitol and elsewhere, were filmed in Shelby and Charlotte; other scenes were filmed in the Asheville area.[44][45] Ross and production designer Phil Messina drew on the buildings of the 1939 New York World's Fair and symbols of political power including Tiananmen Square and Red Square, when designing the Capitol architecture, which they wanted "to be set in the future but have a sense of its own past ... it's festive and alluring and indulgent and decadent but it also has to have the kind of might and power behind it".[46][47] For Katniss' neighborhood in District 12, the production team used Henry River Mill Village, an abandoned mill town which Ross said "just worked perfectly for the movie to evoke the scene"; Messina explained that "originally we talked about maybe building one house and the facade of the house next door and redressing it, and maybe doing some CG extensions ... we ended up finding a whole abandoned mill town ... it was absolutely perfect".[47]

For the costume design, Judianna Makovsky and her crew looked at photographs of coal mining districts from the 1950s, in the search of an "American" feel.[48] The idea was to create clothing unique for every character, and to strongly differentiate the people in Capitol and in districts.[49] Grey and blue prevailed in the color palette for the District, while the people in Capitol were chosen to look bright in theatrical hats, flowers, ruffles, with powdered and eyebrowless faces.[48]