Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter. Twilight. All incredibly popular book series that were made into movies. Now, they are pop culture legends, each with intensely devoted groupies.
Brooke Shields. Britney Spears. Drew Barrymore. All incredibly talented starlets who had to make the hard transition from childhood icon to professional, accomplished adults with careers in the performing arts.
Now, The Hunger Games looks to make a similar transition. But can The Games follow in the footsteps of its predecessors on the road to ultimate success? I think so.
Making the transition from a gripping first-person narrative to an omnipresent screenplay can have disatrous results for a series. Take, for example, the Eragon series. Fantastic in book form, but dismal as a movie.
The appeal of The Games is inextricably tied to the reader’s connection with Katniss. Understanding the depth of her character is what makes reading the series worthwhile; without her narrative The Games would just be another dystopian tale, full of action-packed scenes and touching moments, but lacking an ambassador to the reader’s heart. When made into a movie, The Games risks losing all of this personal perspective.
However, the movie adaptation shows a lot of promise. The producers won’t be able to include all of the details from the books, but staying true to the themes and plotline of the story look to be in the movie adaptation’s cards. Also, The Games are jam-packed with intense action that I can’t wait to see on the big screen, along with a promising soundtrack and undoubtably impressive sound effects.
With Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, and Liam Hensworth as Gale, the producers have chosen an excellent duo to lead the cast. I was instantly convinced of the perfection of each of these two as Katniss and Gale, but I was initially dissappointed in the choice to cast Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. As more teaser trailers are being released, I’m slowly convinced he’ll be able to handle all of the challenges a complex role like Peeta involves.
