The Hunger Games: Catching Fire


The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a 2013 American dystopian action film directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael deBruyn, based on the 2009 novel Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. The sequel to The Hunger Games, it is the second installment in The Hunger Games film series. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. In the film, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the Games inspires uprisings in Panem.
Lionsgate announced a sequel film based on Collins' second Hunger Games novel in 2012, with Gary Ross initially set to return as director; Ross was replaced with Lawrence that May, while deBruyn completed several rewrites to Beaufoy's screenplay. The main cast was confirmed by September 2012 and principal photography began later that month, lasting until March 2013. Filming locations included Georgia, Hawaii, and New Jersey.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on November 11, 2013, and was released in the United States on November 22, by Lionsgate. It received critical acclaim, with praise for Lawrence's performance, action sequences, musical score, screenplay, visual effects, emotional depth, and themes, with many considering it to be the best film in the series. The film grossed $865 million, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2013, the highest-grossing film featuring a female lead since The Exorcist, the highest-grossing Lionsgate film, and the highest grossing film of the series. It also set the box office records for the biggest November opening weekend and the biggest Thanksgiving period box-office total at the time.
Among its accolades, the film was nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Action Film and a Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. For her performance, Lawrence was nominated for the Empire Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. The soundtrack's lead single, "Atlas" by Coldplay, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. The film was followed by its third and final installment in a two-part sequel: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 in 2014 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 in 2015.

Plot

and Peeta Mellark have settled into a life of material comfort but emotional unease back in District 12 following their joint victory in the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss was traumatized from the Games and remains emotionally distant from Peeta. President Snow visits Katniss and reveals that her defiance in the Games has inspired revolts across Panem. To suppress the rebellion, he demands that she and Peeta feign love during the Victory Tour in order to convince the districts that their planned double suicide was an act of romantic love, not of defiance against the Capitol. Snow threatens to destroy District 12 and kill their families and friends if they refuse.
Katniss agrees, but her and Peeta's Victory Tour speeches inadvertently only lead to further unrest across the districts. The two publicly announce their engagement to persuade Panem's citizens of their love, but President Snow remains unconvinced. Upon returning home, Katniss witnesses the brutality of the Capitol's Peacekeepers. Katniss' best friend, Gale Hawthorne, is publicly whipped for trying to intervene in their beating of civilians, leading to a violent confrontation that results in Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch's involvement.
The 75th Hunger Games, the third Quarter Quell, is announced with a twist: tributes will be chosen from the existing pool of victors. As the only living female victor from District 12, Katniss must compete. At the Reaping, Haymitch's name is drawn, but Peeta volunteers for him. To disrupt the Games, Peeta lies during his pre-Games interview, claiming he and Katniss are married and expecting a child, causing an uproar among the Capitol's citizens and demands to cancel the Games. Ordered by Snow, Katniss wears a wedding dress for her interview, which Cinna designs to shift into a Mockingjay symbol, which has become a symbol of defiance against the Capitol. Just before Katniss enters the arena, Cinna is brutally beaten in front of her, before he is later killed for altering the dress.
In the Games, Katniss and Peeta ally with Finnick Odair and Mags from District 4. They face deadly poisonous fog at night; when Peeta is injured, the elderly Mags sacrifices herself so they can escape. They also battle mutated mandrills, during which the female victor from District 6 sacrifices herself to save Peeta's life.
Fleeing to a central beach, the group unites with Beetee and Wiress from District 3, and Johanna Mason, the female victor from District 7. Wiress discovers the arena is designed like a clock, with dangers recurring at intervals. The Careers suddenly ambush the group. Katniss and Johanna kill Gloss and Cashmere, the victors from District 1, but Wiress is killed in the encounter.
Beetee plans to lure the remaining Careers to the beach and electrocute them with lightning. The group prepares the trap by laying a wire from a tree—which is hit with lightning every 12 hours—to the shore. When District 2 victors Brutus and Enobaria arrive, Johanna incapacitates Katniss, removes the tracker from her arm, and flees. Katniss discovers an unconscious Beetee, seemingly electrocuted by the arena's force field. Hearing a cannon and unable to find Peeta, Katniss nearly attacks Finnick, suspecting betrayal. He reminds her of the real enemy. Katniss attaches the wire to an arrow which she shoots into the arena's roof just as lightning strikes; the electricity destroys the arena's force field, blows a hole in the roof, and shuts down the arena's systems, but also knocks Katniss unconscious, and she is rescued by a hovercraft.
Katniss wakes in the hovercraft with Haymitch, Finnick, an unconscious Beetee, and Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Haymitch reveals they are headed to District 13, which not only still exists but is the headquarters of a full-scale rebellion that erupted during the Games. He explains that Heavensbee and several of the tributes were part of a rebel plan to rescue her, but the Capitol captured Peeta and Johanna. Enraged by Haymitch's failure to save Peeta, Katniss attacks him before she is sedated. She later wakes in District 13 with Gale, who assures her that her family is safe, but tells her the Capitol has destroyed District 12.

Cast

Pre-production

announced that a film adaptation of Catching Fire would be released as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on November 22, 2013, as a sequel to the film adaptation of The Hunger Games, with principal photography to take place in September 2012. Simon Beaufoy was hired to write the script for the film and wrote two drafts before leaving after Gary Ross, director of The Hunger Games decided not to direct the sequel. The shooting timeframe was co-ordinated between Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox, in order to allow time for Jennifer Lawrence to shoot X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to Fox's X-Men: First Class, in January 2013.
On April 10, 2012, it was announced that Gary Ross, director of The Hunger Games, would not return due to a 'tight' and 'fitted' schedule. Ross cited the lack of time he had for directing and writing the film in the three and a half months after the release of the first film as the reason for leaving the franchise, hence his decision to move on to direct Free State of Jones. Bennett Miller, Joe Cornish, Francis Lawrence and Juan Antonio Bayona were all being considered to direct the new film. On April 19, 2012, it was announced that Francis Lawrence was offered the director position for the film. Lionsgate officially announced Francis Lawrence as the director for Catching Fire on May 3, 2012. Two days later, it was reported that Michael Arndt was in talks to re-write the script for Catching Fire. On May 24, 2012, the film was renamed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Arndt was confirmed as the new writer of the script. Arndt was paid $400,000 a week for re-writing the script. Producer Nina Jacobson hired Scott Frank to rewrite the script when the film was weeks away from production. Jacobsen described the process of Frank's rewrite as “laying down new train track while conducting the moving train at the same time.”
According to sources, the adaptation needed to be done filming by December 2012 to fit Jennifer Lawrence's schedule. When X-Men: Days of Future Past lost its original director and shooting for the film was delayed till April 2013, Jennifer Lawrence was no longer needed to be filming in January 2013 and the shooting timeframe for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was extended to March. The film featured sequences filmed in the IMAX format.