"Bieber, 18, beat out a litany of potentials the likes of Ryan Kwanteen, Steve Buscemi, and Garrett Hedlund for the role. Swift, 22, was among even tougher competition for the role of heroic Johanna against a list of dozens including Collins' own mother."
Dream roles? I love fantasy series', I would love a role in 'The Hunger Games'. I love the books, but I don't know who I would play or where I would fit. Jennifer Lawrence really carries that film. She's amazing to watch.'
Only problems were that when I uploaded it to youtube the quality wasn't as good as it was and it should have been in widescreen but don't know how to fix that.
I can't believe I didn't notice Primrose's unibrow!
I think they shaved it for the movie. So people wouldn't start laughing and get distracted everytime they saw that hairy growth. Either that or they chose angles specifically to avoid showcasing it. I knew the kid had a unibrow long before the movie came out, and I everytime she appeared half my mind was concentrated on trying to see if it was there. )
Oh guys, and about the Kevin guy she thanks on her speech... It's a beautiful story.
This high school football player named Kevin McGuire has been suffering from leukemia and trying to fight the cancer. He is a huge Taylor Swift fan and his friends decided to start a campaign on Facebook to Taylor be his date on his prom. Unfortunately, during safety issues, she couldn't be there, of course, but she invited him to be her date tonight, at the ACM Awards. But Kevin got worse and had to go back to the hospital this week and couldn't attend the awards.
Mayo: Ok, and as far as the BBFC are concerned tell us the story of Hunger Games.
Austin: Ok, well The Hunger Games came to us some time ago for an advice viewing. We have a service whereby distributors can send in an unfinished version of a film, particularly if they’re looking for a particular category, and we’ll advise them on if the film is looking like it’s going to acheive the category they want and whether some cuts should be made or some changes should be made in order for them to acheive the category they want, before they spend lots of money on finalising special effects and all that kind of thing for those particular scenes. And in this case The Hunger Games came to us some time ago, and the distributor Lionsgate told us they wanted a 12A classification. And when we saw the film, we told them that, although much of the film was appropriate at 12A according to the BBFC’s guidelines, there were certain sequences that went beyond what was acceptable for a 12A, beyond what the public told us is acceptable at 12A. And therefore the film was heading towards a 15. But we did suggest some changes that they might like to consider if they wanted to acheive a 12A.
Mayo: By common consensus this is obviously at the top end of 12A.
Austin: It is, yes definitely
Mayo: So can you illustrate the point that you’re making by telling us something that was taken out?
Austin: Ok, well at the advice stage, this is before it came in for classification at all. Let’s take the Cornucopia scene, which is a sequence a number of people have pointed to, where the children and young people are waiting for the Hunger Games to begin. The original version we saw for advice contained a fair bit of blood, blood splashes, there’s blood on weapons and this kind of thing. And one of the things we asked them to do was digitally remove some of the blood, or we asked them to remove some of the blood effects and blood splashes. So what they did was digitally remove it. So they didn’t actually reduce the length of the film they just reduced the impact of the image on the screen. There was another sequence later on, where Katniss is in a tree and she’s badly wounded and she’s treating those wounds. And we said that the dwelling on close sight of her wound was a bit much for a 12. So the company took out 5 seconds from that particular sequence. And those are just a couple of examples, I mean there’s a scene… well I won’t tell, I was gonna give you a scene at the end but…
Mayo: Avoid plot spoilers.
Austin: I won’t go any further then.
Mark Kermode: I’m always impressed by the fact that when you go on to the BBFC’s extensive classification advice there is a thing at the beginning which says warning contains plot spoilers which is always good to remind people. Let me just ask you a quick question – I saw The Hunger Games in America, where it has a PG-13 rating, does the American version conform to the UK version? Because I know there was advice that you gave before they submitted, then after they submitted there was a couple more cuts and tweaks that were required. Are they the same version in the UK and the US or did I see a slightly different version?
Austin: I think you probably saw a slightly different version. I think there’s a slightly different version elsewhere in Europe aswell. I mean I’ll give you an example, we discussed this film with a number of our European [equivalents] and, the Irish, for instance, classified I think a slightly stronger version than we did at 12A. The version that was submitted for formal classification I think is the version that the Irish classified and so they include a certain amount of blood spurts and this kind of thing. Whereas we asked the distributor on formal advice to remove a further 7 seconds, making a total of about 20 seconds difference. So I’m not sure what version you saw in the US but I suspect it’s probably stronger than the 12A version in the UK.
Kermode: My immediate response to it was, having seen the American version, I thought what I saw was a 15 certificate. So that would conform with what you were saying about when you saw the film and offered advice on it. What I saw I believe was a 15 rather than a 12.
Austin: Correct. I could tell you for sure because in the Cornucopia scene in the UK classified version there’s no blood at all. I don’t know if in the version you saw there was.
Kermode: There seemed to be, I mean one thing I do think is significant is that because I think the film’s rather well made during that sequence, which is a very brutal sequence, it is very hard to distinguish exactly what you have and haven’t seen but I am pretty certain that in the version I saw there were blood splashes and I think that’s what you’re taking out. But actually I think even without them, it’s a very strong scene and because it’s cut in such a way and you know – it’s the sense of dread, Simon and I were discussing this earlier, it’s the sense of dread before that happens.
Mayo: And we’ve talked about this for a number of weeks, knowing that this was coming up. Was there any point, I mean clearly you publish all the guidelines and everything is above board and everyone can see exactly what your thinking is. But the whole tone of the film and of the book is children killing children. Is there ever an issue where just the subject matter, however it’s cut and whatever is in, whether blood has been taken out or whatever, that you would think – I’m not sure this is appropriate at all?
Austin: Yeah, the subject matter obviously and the theme of the film is relevant. I mean at 12A, when we went out to the public and asked them what they felt was appropriate at 12A in terms of theme, they said basically that certain mature themes are fine at 12A, provided that their treatment is suitable for young teens. And we felt this is a mature theme but we felt that is was suitable. It is not a theme that is completely unknown to 12 year olds and above, it’s essentially gladiatorial combat although involving children but the concept of gladiatorial contest is well known. It’s based on a well known novel which has been widely read by 11-14 year olds. It’s not dissimilar to Lord of the Flies, which is a book that I studied at school when I was 11.
Mayo: It’s still taught in schools
Austin: And in a sense Lord of the Flies is even bleaker than The Hunger Games. I mean in The Hunger Games, children are forced against their will to take part in this competiton. In Lord of the Flies children revert to their natural state.
Mayo: Can I ask you a question from a listener here? Kurt on an email, he says ‘I came across this review of The Hunger Games by NPR’s David Edelstein in America, this line I thought was thought provoking: “If the film’s director Gary Ross has any qualms about kids killing kids he keeps them to himself, the murders on screen are fast and largely pain-free, you can hardly see who’s killing who. So despite the body count the rating in America is PG-13. Think about it – you make killing vivid and upsetting you get an R, you take the sting out of it and kids are allowed into the theatre. The rating’s board has got it backward.”‘ Now obviously this is an American comment but the principal is the same, isn’t it?
Austin: Well this is a question we do ask the members of the public, we take out bits to show them and show certain clips of films and films in their entirety. One of the questions we have asked them, and will continue to ask as we continue to consult the public as we go forward, is the level of gore on show – if violence is shown, if there is blood splashed over the screen does that make it more acceptable at junior category or less acceptable? And the answer we get every single time is – the more detail you show, the more harrowing it becomes and the more appropriate that it is only for the upper age groups of 15 and 18 level. So we’re responding to what the public tells us.
Mayo: And on the subject of good violence and bad violence and making the distinction, presumably you have to do that don’t you?
Austin: We do. We do all the time. In fact we took into account in this film, I was listening to the comments earlier before I came on air, it was very clear that Katniss as a character tries to avoid violence as much as she can and the good characters in the film do try to avoid violence and there’s a lot of focus placed in the ingenuity in hiding and doing other things. And when they do use violence the audience identification figures that it is largely in self defence.
Kermode: One last thing I’d like to say is that an awful lot of tweets that I’ve had people saying ‘Oh look, the BBFC are cutting these films; same with The Woman In Black, it was cut to take the edge off it; The Hunger Games had the edge taken off of it.’ My views are quite clear about this is that – censorship is when the board tell you to cut something. When a distributor asks you how to acheive a certificate, that is to do with marketing and promotion and that is absolutely a different thing. And I think we do always need to distinguish between mandatory cuts and cuts that are required by the distributor in order to get the certification that they want.
Austin: I think you’re absolutely right. We didn’t cut any of this film, we offered a 15 uncut to the distributor. The distributor said ‘we wanted 12, we will cut the film ourselves to get a 12, to meet the BBFC guidelines’ and that’s what they chose to do and that’s what they did. So yeah, we did not insist on any of these cuts. It was purely a choice by the distributor.
“Games have always been in the back of everyone’s mind since we picked up the rights to the books,” said David Hayes, vice president of digital marketing at Lionsgate. “Outside of the name that has ‘games’ in the title, it’s no-brainer that you’d make a game based on the book or movie. But we’ve been careful and cautious that when we do embark on a new project, we’re doing it the right way and delivering an experience that fans will enjoy. We’ve had many discussions about all the types of games, including console games. The two we released at launch are the best representation of what we’re setting out to do with these games.”
With the next movie due in 2013 and another two locked in after that, Lionsgate has plenty of time to partner with a game publisher and release at least a console game. Electronic Arts showed that games based on movies based on books can be successful with its Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, as an example. And a game publisher can avoid the controversial aspect of The Hunger Games arena battles altogether.
“I don’t think having kids battle to the death in the Hunger Games is a hindrance to a potential console game,” said Hayes. “If you look at the narrative arc across the trilogy of books, there’s an Old Testament-style story of Katniss versus the Capitol. It’s that grander story of having an enslaved people forced to compete in the games that’s very attractive to fans and marketers and anyone participating in the franchise. It gets people excited. The focus would be less on the kids killing kids aspect and more about the more powerful story of good versus evil.”
Comments
Yes or No?
There was Amandla, Jackie, Isabelle, and Willow (who was with Halle Berry when she was covered with slime).
LMAO
Hmm, she must have misplaced her bow for that photo...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbhrtUWMuc8&context=C4cf6f9eADvjVQa1PpcFMWx0p6jag3Wt7sn6WSoD8bu1EKw4Pm8k0=Only problems were that when I uploaded it to youtube the quality wasn't as good as it was and it should have been in widescreen but don't know how to fix that.
I know it's a Hunger Games thread, but as she is involved with the movie some how.. I thought you would like to know ^^
This high school football player named Kevin McGuire has been suffering from leukemia and trying to fight the cancer. He is a huge Taylor Swift fan and his friends decided to start a campaign on Facebook to Taylor be his date on his prom. Unfortunately, during safety issues, she couldn't be there, of course, but she invited him to be her date tonight, at the ACM Awards. But Kevin got worse and had to go back to the hospital this week and couldn't attend the awards.
You can follow the story here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Taylor-Swift-Go-to-Prom-with-Kevin-Mcguire/261221950621156
He is really happy that she won. Let's pray for him ^^
G.G.
I've gone over to the dark side lmfao :P
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/592902
:>
There's four unreleased score cues to listen here. It's from the Facebook game.
Austin: Ok, well The Hunger Games came to us some time ago for an advice viewing. We have a service whereby distributors can send in an unfinished version of a film, particularly if they’re looking for a particular category, and we’ll advise them on if the film is looking like it’s going to acheive the category they want and whether some cuts should be made or some changes should be made in order for them to acheive the category they want, before they spend lots of money on finalising special effects and all that kind of thing for those particular scenes. And in this case The Hunger Games came to us some time ago, and the distributor Lionsgate told us they wanted a 12A classification. And when we saw the film, we told them that, although much of the film was appropriate at 12A according to the BBFC’s guidelines, there were certain sequences that went beyond what was acceptable for a 12A, beyond what the public told us is acceptable at 12A. And therefore the film was heading towards a 15. But we did suggest some changes that they might like to consider if they wanted to acheive a 12A.
Mayo: By common consensus this is obviously at the top end of 12A.
Austin: It is, yes definitely
Mayo: So can you illustrate the point that you’re making by telling us something that was taken out?
Austin: Ok, well at the advice stage, this is before it came in for classification at all. Let’s take the Cornucopia scene, which is a sequence a number of people have pointed to, where the children and young people are waiting for the Hunger Games to begin. The original version we saw for advice contained a fair bit of blood, blood splashes, there’s blood on weapons and this kind of thing. And one of the things we asked them to do was digitally remove some of the blood, or we asked them to remove some of the blood effects and blood splashes. So what they did was digitally remove it. So they didn’t actually reduce the length of the film they just reduced the impact of the image on the screen. There was another sequence later on, where Katniss is in a tree and she’s badly wounded and she’s treating those wounds. And we said that the dwelling on close sight of her wound was a bit much for a 12. So the company took out 5 seconds from that particular sequence. And those are just a couple of examples, I mean there’s a scene… well I won’t tell, I was gonna give you a scene at the end but…
Mayo: Avoid plot spoilers.
Austin: I won’t go any further then.
Mark Kermode: I’m always impressed by the fact that when you go on to the BBFC’s extensive classification advice there is a thing at the beginning which says warning contains plot spoilers which is always good to remind people. Let me just ask you a quick question – I saw The Hunger Games in America, where it has a PG-13 rating, does the American version conform to the UK version? Because I know there was advice that you gave before they submitted, then after they submitted there was a couple more cuts and tweaks that were required. Are they the same version in the UK and the US or did I see a slightly different version?
Austin: I think you probably saw a slightly different version. I think there’s a slightly different version elsewhere in Europe aswell. I mean I’ll give you an example, we discussed this film with a number of our European [equivalents] and, the Irish, for instance, classified I think a slightly stronger version than we did at 12A. The version that was submitted for formal classification I think is the version that the Irish classified and so they include a certain amount of blood spurts and this kind of thing. Whereas we asked the distributor on formal advice to remove a further 7 seconds, making a total of about 20 seconds difference. So I’m not sure what version you saw in the US but I suspect it’s probably stronger than the 12A version in the UK.
Kermode: My immediate response to it was, having seen the American version, I thought what I saw was a 15 certificate. So that would conform with what you were saying about when you saw the film and offered advice on it. What I saw I believe was a 15 rather than a 12.
Austin: Correct. I could tell you for sure because in the Cornucopia scene in the UK classified version there’s no blood at all. I don’t know if in the version you saw there was.
Kermode: There seemed to be, I mean one thing I do think is significant is that because I think the film’s rather well made during that sequence, which is a very brutal sequence, it is very hard to distinguish exactly what you have and haven’t seen but I am pretty certain that in the version I saw there were blood splashes and I think that’s what you’re taking out. But actually I think even without them, it’s a very strong scene and because it’s cut in such a way and you know – it’s the sense of dread, Simon and I were discussing this earlier, it’s the sense of dread before that happens.
Mayo: And we’ve talked about this for a number of weeks, knowing that this was coming up. Was there any point, I mean clearly you publish all the guidelines and everything is above board and everyone can see exactly what your thinking is. But the whole tone of the film and of the book is children killing children. Is there ever an issue where just the subject matter, however it’s cut and whatever is in, whether blood has been taken out or whatever, that you would think – I’m not sure this is appropriate at all?
Austin: Yeah, the subject matter obviously and the theme of the film is relevant. I mean at 12A, when we went out to the public and asked them what they felt was appropriate at 12A in terms of theme, they said basically that certain mature themes are fine at 12A, provided that their treatment is suitable for young teens. And we felt this is a mature theme but we felt that is was suitable. It is not a theme that is completely unknown to 12 year olds and above, it’s essentially gladiatorial combat although involving children but the concept of gladiatorial contest is well known. It’s based on a well known novel which has been widely read by 11-14 year olds. It’s not dissimilar to Lord of the Flies, which is a book that I studied at school when I was 11.
Mayo: It’s still taught in schools
Austin: And in a sense Lord of the Flies is even bleaker than The Hunger Games. I mean in The Hunger Games, children are forced against their will to take part in this competiton. In Lord of the Flies children revert to their natural state.
Mayo: Can I ask you a question from a listener here? Kurt on an email, he says ‘I came across this review of The Hunger Games by NPR’s David Edelstein in America, this line I thought was thought provoking: “If the film’s director Gary Ross has any qualms about kids killing kids he keeps them to himself, the murders on screen are fast and largely pain-free, you can hardly see who’s killing who. So despite the body count the rating in America is PG-13. Think about it – you make killing vivid and upsetting you get an R, you take the sting out of it and kids are allowed into the theatre. The rating’s board has got it backward.”‘ Now obviously this is an American comment but the principal is the same, isn’t it?
Austin: Well this is a question we do ask the members of the public, we take out bits to show them and show certain clips of films and films in their entirety. One of the questions we have asked them, and will continue to ask as we continue to consult the public as we go forward, is the level of gore on show – if violence is shown, if there is blood splashed over the screen does that make it more acceptable at junior category or less acceptable? And the answer we get every single time is – the more detail you show, the more harrowing it becomes and the more appropriate that it is only for the upper age groups of 15 and 18 level. So we’re responding to what the public tells us.
Mayo: And on the subject of good violence and bad violence and making the distinction, presumably you have to do that don’t you?
Austin: We do. We do all the time. In fact we took into account in this film, I was listening to the comments earlier before I came on air, it was very clear that Katniss as a character tries to avoid violence as much as she can and the good characters in the film do try to avoid violence and there’s a lot of focus placed in the ingenuity in hiding and doing other things. And when they do use violence the audience identification figures that it is largely in self defence.
Kermode: One last thing I’d like to say is that an awful lot of tweets that I’ve had people saying ‘Oh look, the BBFC are cutting these films; same with The Woman In Black, it was cut to take the edge off it; The Hunger Games had the edge taken off of it.’ My views are quite clear about this is that – censorship is when the board tell you to cut something. When a distributor asks you how to acheive a certificate, that is to do with marketing and promotion and that is absolutely a different thing. And I think we do always need to distinguish between mandatory cuts and cuts that are required by the distributor in order to get the certification that they want.
Austin: I think you’re absolutely right. We didn’t cut any of this film, we offered a 15 uncut to the distributor. The distributor said ‘we wanted 12, we will cut the film ourselves to get a 12, to meet the BBFC guidelines’ and that’s what they chose to do and that’s what they did. So yeah, we did not insist on any of these cuts. It was purely a choice by the distributor.
With the next movie due in 2013 and another two locked in after that, Lionsgate has plenty of time to partner with a game publisher and release at least a console game. Electronic Arts showed that games based on movies based on books can be successful with its Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, as an example. And a game publisher can avoid the controversial aspect of The Hunger Games arena battles altogether.
“I don’t think having kids battle to the death in the Hunger Games is a hindrance to a potential console game,” said Hayes. “If you look at the narrative arc across the trilogy of books, there’s an Old Testament-style story of Katniss versus the Capitol. It’s that grander story of having an enslaved people forced to compete in the games that’s very attractive to fans and marketers and anyone participating in the franchise. It gets people excited. The focus would be less on the kids killing kids aspect and more about the more powerful story of good versus evil.”
twitter.com/evy_lynch
PD: Anybody heard the extra cues from the score?
http://cdn.thehungergamesadventures.com/CDN_SERVICE//V.1.0.6752/Resources/Sound/bg_music.mp3
She's a bit young for Annie, but I don't care If she gets the role