Elizabeth Banks to Play Death Escort in ‘The Hunger Games’

Finally a bit of The Hunger Games casting news that I care about.

Elizabeth Banks (SLiTHER) is in talks to star as “Effie Trinket,” the flaky bureaucrat who escorts her district’s young death-match contestants to their fate.

She joins the previously announced Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Dayo Okeniyi, and Amandla Stenberg in the pic based on the bestselling young-adult novel by Suzanne Collins, set in a dystopian future where a young woman joins a survival contest to save her community.

Having originally been pitched as Battle Royale meets Running Man, recently the word Twilight forced its way into the mix. Meh.

Gary Ross is directing, with Billy Ray penning the script.
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Hutcherson, Hemsworth the Males Leads in Lionsgate’s ‘The Hunger Games’

Finally something official to report…

Lionsgate has locked both Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth for roles in The Hunger Games, their highly anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ popular novel. They will star alongside the previously announced Jennifer Lawrence, who will play “Katniss Everdeen”.

Hutcherson, who was nearly cast as Peter Parker in Columbia Pictures’ Spider-Man reboot, will star as “Peeta Mellark”. Hemsworth (Knowing, Triangle) stars as “Gale Hawthorne”.

Gary Ross is directing the pic set in post-apocalyptic America, which introduces 16-year-old heroine Katniss Everdeen, who must participate in a fight-to-the-death annual event called the Hunger Games. The battles are televised, and pit youths from each of the Capitol’s 12 Districts against each other.

Lionsgate will release on March 23, 2012.
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Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

The Vampire’s Assistant tells the frightening tale of a boy who unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires. Pulled into a fantastic life of misunderstood sideshow freaks and grotesque creatures of the night, one teen will vanish from the safety of a boring existence and fulfill his destiny in a place drawn from nightmares.

14-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) was like most kids in his suburban neighborhood. He hung out with his best friend, got decent grades and usually stayed out of trouble. But when he and his buddy stumble upon a traveling freak show, things begin to change inside Darren. That’s the exact moment when a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) turns him into something, well, bloodthirsty.