When we asked last week who’d make the perfect Katniss, we got inundated with responses. What’s more, lots of you cast the rest of the books as well. As for myself, I’m still dithering over Katniss since it’s the most critical role (and the one that would be easiest to screw up–get Katniss wrong and none of the movies will work). In my mind’s eye she’s like a young Lisbeth Salander, wiry, dark, and fierce. Maybe Saoirse Ronan with dark hair? I’m less conflicted when it comes to Peeta (Lucas Till) and Gale (Drew Roy). But I have no idea how to choose among the actors suggested for Haymitch and Effie. In their own way, each one seems pitch-perfect.

So, Hunger Games fans, cast your votes! We’ll put up our results later in the week.

VOTE @ Entertainment Weekly HERE.
They have some other polls for different characters as well.

I thought I’d post this as it’s own article, since I couldn’t put everything in the previous post.

Collins wrote a draft of the screenplay, and Billy Ray, who wrote State of Play and is set to adapt the Fox action drama 24 into a feature, completed a polish. Producers are now searching for a director.
Lionsgate president of production Alli Shearmur collected all of the studio’s top brass to get on the phone when it came time to convince Jacobson they were in sync. “That never happens at a big studio,” Jacobson said. “We were all just really emotionally invested fans.”

The Hunger Games has found older fans apart from the excited filmmakers, which is good news for a potential film franchise; Scholastic’s Leviathan estimates, based on word of mouth and members of the official Hunger Games Facebook page, half of all readers are adults. The book’s mainstream appeal, he explained, can be attributed to any number of its themes. “It taps into the culture of fear we live in, definitely… But it’s also accessible in other ways. There’s action, a love triangle, a headstrong female lead, science-fiction… ”

All involved agree that the film should play to older crowds but “should absolutely be rated PG-13,” Jacobson said. “It would be wrong to make the R-rated version of it.”

“The situations are so intense and frightening; it’s just going to be a matter of creating suspense,” she said. “The power of movies can be just as much about what you don’t see as what you do.”

The difficulty in translating the book to film is apparent; both Jacobson and Lionsgate say the movie will be made for the book’s 12- to 18-year-old core audience, and as such they want a PG-13 rating. Scholastic Press editorial director David Levithan recalled his hesitation to the premise. “Oooh, that sounds brutal,” he remembered thinking. “I will fully admit that many of us, just based on the summary, thought this was going to be quite a challenge. Not just for us, but for Suzanne.”

“And then the first book came in and we were all blown away.” Collins, who is currently on a 12-city tour to promote the Mockingjay, is still surprised by how popular the series has become. Hundreds of fans attended a midnight release party for the book at New York’s Books of Wonder, and a surprised told the waiting crowd: “I didn’t know there were so many of you until I came out.” Before writing The Hunger Games, she wrote the middle-reader series The Underland Chronicles and worked as a writer in children’s TV programming.

The mother of two from Connecticut says she was flipping between reality shows and news from Iraq three years ago when she came up with The Hunger Games. “On one channel young people were competing for money. On the next channel, young people were fighting for their lives. I was tired, and the ideas merged,” she told USA Today in an interview last September. Coupled with one of the Greek myths about Theseus—similarly about a group of young people sent into a maze to be eaten by a Minotaur—Collins formed the framework for her post-apocalyptic story.

In The Hunger Games, Katniss and 23 other contestants between 12- and 18-years-old are trapped in a massive arena until only one winner is left standing. Throughout the games, she wrestles with the idea of trying to live when it means her competitors must die. And while Katniss succeeds in defying the Capitol in small ways from within the arena, the book does not shy away from the inevitable, nor does it seem to relish depicting deaths by stabbing, insects, or worse. The test for filmmakers will be to walk the same line. “The book’s ethics are clear, and we will find a director who can handle the material in the right way,” Jacobson said. “Suzanne was rightly concerned that it had the potential to be turned into something she hated, glorifying the violence the book is meant to critique.”

“That was really our pitch to Suzanne—You don’t want the movie to become its own version of The Hunger Games,” she continued.

Collins wrote a draft of the screenplay, and Billy Ray, who wrote State of Play and is set to adapt the Fox action drama 24 into a feature, completed a polish. Producers are now searching for a director.

Lionsgate president of production Alli Shearmur collected all of the studio’s top brass to get on the phone when it came time to convince Jacobson they were in sync. “That never happens at a big studio,” Jacobson said. “We were all just really emotionally invested fans.”

A few sites out there have been speculating on who’ll lead the film as our heroine, Katniss Everdeen.

Suggestions have included Ellen Page, Camilla Belle, Kristen Stewart, Malese Jow, Jodelle Ferland and even Megan Fox. Some of the suggestions floating around aren’t half bad, but there’s one name missing from all of these lists that should be at the top, Kick-Ass’ Chloe Moretz. In fact, the young actress wants it herself!

During a recent chat about the Kick-Ass DVD and Blu-ray release, we spared some time to talk about her upcoming projects Hugo Cabret, The Rut and Hick. All of those films sound promising, but I couldn’t help but to ask if Moretz had ever read The Hunger Games. She knew exactly what I was getting at and didn’t even answer the question, she just said, “I really really want to be in it.” The enthusiasm continued when I suggested she’d be perfect for the lead role. “I would so so so so so love to be in this film.” She added, “It would be such an honor to be in it.”

I think it’s safe to say that once The Hunger Games casting commences, Moretz will at least seek out an audition. Ever since Kick-Ass she’s the hottest commodity in Hollywood when it comes to playing a young girl with a little edge. Moretz made the perfect hero in Kick-Ass, so doing so in the Panem Hunger Games should be no problem. The only thing that might work against Moretz is her age. However, this is Hollywood we’re talking about, an industry where a 30-year-old can pass as a high school student. There’s no reason Moretz can’t play a 16-year-old. Plus, should the first film spawn into a franchise, she can grow with it.

The veteran screenwriter Billy Ray has been doing a draft/polish of the script that was initially written by Collins herself.

Ray has a number of action movies under his belt, including “Flightplan” and “State of Play” (as well as “Breach” and “Shattered Glass,” both of which also saw him sitting behind the camera). But perhaps most notable is that the writer-director has been chosen as the man to adapt “24″ for the big screen. (His pitch, which has Jack Bauer running around Europe, Jason Bourne-style, was favored by Fox executives.) There’s probably not a lot of overlap between the globetrotting battle to fight violent terrorists and fighting to survive in the futuristic nation of Panem, though, now that we think of it, there are looser comparisons out there. (It’s also worth noting that “Hunger Games” comes from Scholastic, the same publisher as the Harry Potter franchise.)

Fans have been wondering who’ll pay the young heroine in “Hunger Games” — Chloe Moretz, Dakota Fanning and Saoirse Ronan are among the fan favorites, as far as we can tell — but first the project needs to find a director. That could happen soon; Ray’s script is about to come into producers, if it hasn’t quietly been slipped to them already. And with that will commence the next step in the battle to create the next “Twilight,” a competition as fierce as anything in “Hunger Games” itself.

I spoke to two producers from Lionsgate who are making the “Hunger Games” movie. They said Suzanne had given them her draft of the script, which is now being revised by another screenwriter. They hope to be able to announce a director this summer, and go into production in January to release the film later in 2011.