Jennifer Lawrence to be offered Hunger Games lead
She's the favourite to play Katniss in the adaptation
Jennifer Lawrence will be offered the lead role in Gary Ross' adaptation of The Hunger Games , according to a report by Variety.
Last week, news landed that virtually every young actress in Hollywood was being considered to play Katniss Everdeen, including Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin.
Apparently, Ross and execs at Lionsgate are keen to cast the role a little older, and Lawrence fits the bill at 20 (compared to 14-year-olds Steinfeld and Breslin). Apparently the decision was influenced by the need to cast the love interest.
The film is based on a novel by Suzanne Collins, who has adapted the script with Billy Ray. It tells the story of a young girl who competes in a televised survival competition in a dystopian future.
Lawrence received an Oscar nomination for her performance in Winter's Bone , and she'll next be seen in this summer's X-Men: First Class . She has also been considering starring in Oliver Stone's Savages , although according to Variety she hasn't officially signed on yet.
The Hunger Games is the first novel in a trilogy, so no doubt everyone involved is eyeing the franchise potential.
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I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at 12DOVE, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.
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