Woody Harrelson Says ‘Catching Fire’ Has a “Really Strong Script”
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MTV’s Josh Horowitz got the chance to interview Woody Harrelson at TIFF and asked him about how he’ll approach Haymitch in the next movie and whether he’d already read the script.
“Yeah, I read the script,” Harrelson answered rather incredulously. “I took a gander at the script, sure. … It’s good that you get to do that before they start shooting.”
All sarcasm aside, Harrelson revealed that he’s very pleased with the material, especially given the tight turnaround needed after Lawrence took over directing duties from Gary Ross in May.
“I think that it’s a really good script, a really strong script, so I feel good about that,” he said. “That’s the big question mark, since there was so little time to get that script together.”
For those of you that can’t watch the video, you can read the full write-up on their conversation at MTV.
bless you, woody harrelson!
meanwhile, my favorite part of this was when he mentioned francis lawrence suggested he do some research on PTSD. definitely puts some of my fears about the change in director to rest.
(also, i just love how josh horowitz is such a fanboy. he should do every hunger games interview ever).
LOVE that Lawrence has him researching PTSD! That gives me a lot of confidence, because if anyone ever was suffering from PTSD it’s Haymitch!!
I definitely think the newer movies will be a lot better. There’s a lot of action and story going on, and a lot of Gale and Finnick lol
of course the actors are going to talk up the movie.
but yeah, Haymitch and many other victors are classic examples of using drugs to cope with PTSD.
OMG – The research on PTSD thing was just AWESOME. I love it, I love it! They do understand! :’)
It’s encouraging to know FL is really seems to want to bring out the essence of CF.
I’m interested that WH says he’s looking forward to acting as drunk as possible: I thought I read before somewherethat he was glad he wasn’t made to do this for THG (because he’d tried doing it before and it hadn’t worked out so well, or something like that). Could be wrong though.
I Think Francis is going do a way better job then Gary I did like THG but he moved the camera to much and never really showed a whole scnce he would always cut from one thing to another I understand it’s a movie and you gotta make it short but really Gary in almost every scene I hope Francis brings book Peeta to CF and not movie Peeta
I really, really loved it when the PTSD was mentioned. One of my main fears about this franchise is that the effects of the Games and the war will be downplayed. That the tributes, Katniss especially, won’t be as broken as they were in the books. This clears up some of my worries.
Knowing the script is written by Simon Beaufoy, im not worried at all
And it makes me very happy to know he is researching on PTSD!
The only thing im worried about is that they change the feeling of the first movie. When I read I dont really picture anything so seeing the movie helps me a lot and so Gary has given me something to picture in my head
@Anonymous – From memory the context for that was in the scenes that Gary had written in, like a really drunk Haymitch didn’t work for what was written in, so in the end Woody thought it was the right decision not to have him too drunk (even though at the time he had been pushing to go further with it)
Really great interview, like most people above I was really happy when Woody mentioned PTSD, they really do need to show the effects the games have. I think it shows they are doing their homework in regards to the book, and it gives me confidence they are going to capture the same tones/emotions/themes/messages of Catching Fire.
He said ‘Strong’ not ‘Faithful to the book’…
I’m a bit scared, to be honest
@Death2analog – A few of the cast have said that it is faithful to the book though, Philip Seymour Hoffman mentioned this early on and Josh has a couple of times as well, so we should be okay
I literally sighed of relief after I read your comment… Thanks Tash!
Shame we are one whole year away from the premiere
I don’t think we can ever get anything that is 100% faithful to the book — specially if they intend to split Mockingjay into 2 movies.
Not sure if Woody mentioned this in his interview but the best commendation he had was that Francis Lawrence wants him to be ‘over the top’. In the THG special features, Woody mentioned that Gary Ross specifically asked him to tone down his performance of Haymitch. To see Woody be ‘over the top’ is exciting for me!
@Death2analog – Heheh, you’re welcome
I think we all share the same fear really in regards to the script, but I’m staying positive!
@AnvilGate – Oh of course, there is no way that every moment from the books is going to be in the film or that there are things that aren’t going to be changed. I thought THG did a great job of maintaining the key elements of the book, and as I mentioned above I felt the same emotions watching the film as I did reading the book, and I am feeling confident that will be repeated for Catching Fire (and hopefully MJ Parts 1 and 2 also)
I would definitely love to see the over the top Haymitch though – maybe early on when Katniss has to wake him before the Victory Tour?
This is killing me! November seems so far away and I just can’t wait to see something– teasers, posters, trailers!!!! All these interviews are really hyping me up, and they’re only at the start of filming!
LOL On the drunk scale! I hope Woody can go a bit further with it. I took my mom to see it and I asked her what she thought about Haymitch being drunk, and she said “oh he was supposed to be drunk the whole time, I just thought he was REALLY tired.”
LOL!
I’m excited already. Haymitch has always been my favorite and it’s so great to see that they’ve started exploring his more complicated emotions now. And I really do hope they show him more drunk since he really is a lot more drunk in the second book than the first.
I’ve heard many people say that Francis is a good choice because he’s knows how to shoot good action. This scares me a bit, because Gary understood so clearly that if you show this professional action scene with great camera angles, it will be like they want the entertainment to be the action (people killing each other) and then the people watching the movie will become the same kind of people as the capitol’s inhabitants. I really, really hope that they kind of keep Gary’s way of filming the movie, at least not do it in a way that brings all the focus to people killing each other and makes it look like something fun. Maybe it will be okay as long as they show how much the games hurt people.
@tash– yeah, i think seeing haymitch outside of a capitol setting will be the best point to amp up the drunkenness. we didn’t really get to see him in D12 in the first movie, so there’s a big opportunity there for CF.
Can’t wait!!! I think these next movies will be aLOT better. Especially since they have more of Gale and Finnick.
It is too bad that were still A LONG time from the premiere.
BTW, is anyone going to the Victory Tour 2013 fan convention?????