Josh Hutcherson Talks Catching Fire

The Hunger Games official DVD was released this week and recently the star of the film and subsequent films, Josh Hutcherson sat down and answered questions about the world phenomenon series.

Hutcherson plays Peeta Mellark, the fellows District 12 tribute alongside Katniss Everdeen. But just because he has been in the media for a while already doesn’t mean he isn’t still nervous.

“I was really nervous about it to be honest,” Hutcherson said about embarking on the film franchise, based on a trilogy of best-selling books by Suzanne Collins. “It’s crazy because living up to ‘The Hunger Games‘ coming out, everybody was talking about how it’s going to change everything, your whole life — it’s going to be so different,” he explained. “I like my life! I didn’t want that to happen and it didn’t… I’m still me and I’m still doing my normal things that I have always done.”

Hutcherson also spoke about the fans of the series and their passion.

“‘Hunger Games fans’ are ravenous and extremely passionate.  They’re the absolute best,” he said.

And when he says passionate, he isn’t lying.  Hutcherson remembered a time when fans showed up at his home in Kentucky.

“I had a couple of fans who showed at my doorstep in Kentucky,” he said, adding that they arrived the day after Christmas last year. “They just wanted to meet me and say ‘hi.’ They were freaking out and crying.  They drove eight hours on the chance that I might be home…  That was intense.  I was like, ‘Whoa!  This is my home in Kentucky.  Why are you here?’  It was crazy.  There are some crazy fans out there.”

Now that the DVD has been released, Hutcherson is looking toward the future and the filming of Catching Fire, the second film in the series.

I’m so excited it’s finally here, the time to start making it is finally here. I can’t wait to get shooting.” Given that a script didn’t exist just a few short months ago, it’s hard to believe everything is, in fact, prepped. But it is, according to Hutcherson: “I do have a script in hand and it’s awesome.  I love it so much,” Hutcherson confirmed, revealing that he met with newly-installed director Francis Lawrence (“I Am Legend,” 2007, “Water for Elephants,” 2011) to discuss the film’s vision. “We talked about how important it was to really make the movie version of the book and that was Francis’s goal from day one — and the script definitely portrays that.  It’s a very true-to-the-book rendition of the movie.”

Hutcherson also confirmed that fans will see a bigger and buffer Peeta this time around.

 “I’ve been working out a lot, getting back in the right shape for the role — because this last year, I sort of split my time and enjoyed myself — so I’ve been paying for that for the last month-and-a-half or so, getting back into the gym and eating healthy,” Hutcherson said.

One of the most enticing subplots of the series is the love triangle between the lead characters, Peeta, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), and Gale (Liam Hemsworth).

“It’s such a tough position that I know Peeta is put in where he is in absolute love with this girl and she acts like she’s in love with him, but he knows that she isn’t — and that is heartbreaking. As an actor, it’s something that I’m really excited play because it’s such a a conflicting emotion… It’s a very conflicting, confusing kind of thing and I can’t wait to play it out.  It’s really, really intense and exciting, I think.”

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is set to be released in theaters November 22, 2013. Filming will begin soon and will see all the lead characters returning.

New time-lapse video shows how to make a zombie in under 90 seconds

AMC’s “The Walking Dead” is praised for many things including its captivating storyline and excellent writing. But there is one other aspect that makes the show amazing, the zombies.

Previous extra’s of zombies have discussed the process of becoming a zombie for the series. Now, a new time-lapse video has been released showing the world what it is like to become a zombie.

You can watch the video here!

AMC renewed The Walking Dead for a third season on October 25, 2011 after the season two premiere broke cable ratings records. The third season will consist of 16 episodes, an extended order from previous seasons.

It will also see the introduction of two highly anticipated characters from the comic book series. David Morrissey will be playing The Governor and Danai Gurira will be playing Michonne. Season 3 will see the return of Michael Rooker as Merle Dixon.

Season 3  will premiere on October 14, 2012.

Amazon Crowns ‘Hunger Games’ as Its Top Seller

The captivating Harry Potter series has been dethroned as Amazon’s best seller by The Hunger Games.

Amazon announced friday that Katniss Everdeen and co. have surpassed the wizards of Hogwarts as the company’s best selling series. The sales include print and e-book formats, making the “Hunger Games” trilogy Amazon’s best-selling series.

The Hunger Games was written by Suzanne Collins and has since captivated the world in both print and film.

Sara Nelson, the editorial director of books and Kindle at Amazon, said in a statement that since the debut of “The Hunger Games” in 2008, the series has “taken the world by storm, much as Harry Potter did a decade before.”

“Interestingly, this series is only three books versus Harry Potter’s seven, and to achieve this result in just four years is a great testament to both the popularity of the work and, we think, the growth in reading digitally during that time,” she said.

Sarah Gelman, a spokeswoman for Amazon, declined to produce specific sales figures. Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for Scholastic, the publisher of both series, said that Scholastic has 150 million copies of the Harry Potter series and more than 50 million copies of the “Hunger Games” series in print in the United States.

The second film adaptation of the Hunger Games series, Catching Fire is scheduled to be released on November 22, 2013.

Game of Thrones Season 3 Casts Mance Rayder

Fans have been waiting on bated breath for news on who would play the pivotal role of Mance Rayder in season 3 of HBO’s hit series,” Game of Thrones.” And finally our wishes are granted with the news that Ciarán Hinds has been offered the role.

The actor who is most known for his role on “Rome” will be playing a key role in the show and lives of it’s characters. Mance Rayder is a Wildling Leader known as The King Beyond The Wall. He has united much of the wildling clans and has one mission in mind: To Attack The Wall.

Up until now he has been frequently referred to but remained unseen. His first appearance was in the third book, A Storm of Swords, a part of the series written by genius George R.R. Martin.

Fan favorite character Jon Snow, played by Kit Harrington, was captured to be taken to Mance at the end of the second series. His role in the wildling society is about to get more complicated.

Hinds is no stranger to the climate of the show. He is a native of belfast where the show’s primary production is based (Thrones S3 is also shooting in Croatia, Iceland and Morocco). He’s appeared in films such as Munich, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and John Carter. But TV fans know him best from Rome, where he was a very imposing Julius Caesar. He recently also had an arc on USA’s Political Animals.

Game of Thrones returns March 31. (And yes I know that is far to long, but we will make do right fans?)

New Dexter 2 Minute Teaser Trailer

 

A brand new full trailer for Showtime’s “Dexter” season 7 has been released and jeepers, does it look intense. The new episodes kick off on September 30th and it looks like this will be a doozy.

The tagline for the new season states, “Many have met the Dark Passenger… Few have survived. Once you’ve seen him, there’s no escape.”

This new season is picking up immediately after the shocking finale of season 6. In case you some how forgot the monumentous finale, it ends with Deb walking in right as Dexter is making his latest kill out of Travis. There was much speculation regarding what Deb’s reaction would be (aside from general knowledge that she was sure to have an expletive filled response.) Fans had wondered whether she would take him in, or help him cover it up especially with the knowledge that she is in love with him.

Well, some of these questions have been answered by this new trailer. It appears from the trailer that Deb will be helping Dexter at first until his true dark passanger is revealed at least for now. Also his blood slide is found linking him to the past murders that were previously linked to Doakes.

So what the hell will happen to Dexter? He cryptically answers “The only thing worse than not knowing what she will do, is not knowing what I will do.”

Newcomers this season include Ray Stevenson, Yvonne Strahovski and Calista Flockhart. And it is going to be a fun ride.

You can watch the new trailer below:

New Stills From Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2

Several brand new stills have been released from the upcoming final installment of the Twilight Saga. The photos were released by Summit Entertainment and you can see them below.

Despite being amidst a cheating scandal between stars/ former lovers Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, the film is expected to still do extremely well in the box office. The Bill Condon-directed adaptation opens in theaters on November 16.

Based on Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, the film’s large cast includes:

Main cast
  • Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan/Cullen
  • Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen
  • Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black
  • Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen
  • Elizabeth Reaser as Esme Cullen
  • Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen
  • Kellan Lutz as Emmett Cullen
  • Nikki Reed as Rosalie Hale
  • Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale
  • Billy Burke as Charlie Swan
  • Sarah Clarke as Renée Dwyer
  • Julia Jones as Leah Clearwater
  • Booboo Stewart as Seth Clearwater
  • MyAnna Buring as Tanya
  • Maggie Grace as Irina
  • Casey LaBow as Kate
  • Michael Sheen as Aro
  • Jamie Campbell Bower
  • Christopher Heyerdahl as Marcus
  • Chaske Spencer as Sam Uley
  • Christian Camargo as Eleazar
  • Mía Maestro as Carmen
  • Mackenzie Foy as Renesmee Cullen
Part 2 adds new cast members:
  • Dakota Fanning as Jane
  • Cameron Bright as Alec
  • Charlie Bewley as Demetri
  • Daniel Cudmore as Felix
  • Noel Fisher as Vladimir
  • Guri Weinberg as Stefan
  • Lee Pace as Garrett
  • Joe Anderson as Alistair
  • Judi Shekoni as Zafrina
  • Tracey Huggins as Senna
  • J.D. Pardo as Nahuel
  • Rami Malek as Benjamin

A Majority of Walking Dead Players Try To Do The Right Thing

It seems The Walking Dead video game from Telltale games is proving to be just as much a social commentary as it is a captivating video game. Players are, as a majority, trying to do the right thing.

“Not even a zombie apocalypse can stop people from being intrinsically good,” said video game publisher and developer Telltale Games.

Similar to several popular games out right now, player choices are an important aspect of Telltale’s episodic adventure game. The game, based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, tasks players with making difficult (and morally ambiguous) decisions that affect the outcome of the story. However, according to new statistics revealed after the The Walking Dead Episode 2: Starved For Help was released, most people try to make the “right” choice even if it means endangering themselves or others.

(Warning: The rest of this article contains major spoilers for The Walking Dead) 

87 percent of players, when faced with the crossbow-weildling woman, chose to wait rather than shoot her dead. The majority (85 percent of players) then decided to chop off high-school teacher David’s leg to save him from approaching walkers, and most also chose to spare the life of demented dairy farmer Andy St. John (80 percent of players).

Telltale Games senior director of marketing Richard Iggo analyzed these statistics and said,

“Some of the stats we’ve seen coming back from player decisions have created a perception that even in dire times – and when faced with no-win situations where each decision is morally grey – the majority of people will try to do the ‘right’ thing if they can, even if there’s really no ‘right’ decision to be made,” Iggo told GamesBeat. ”It’s fascinating because even when we offer players a decision where the apparently darker option might make sense from a purely logical point of view, they’ll often try to choose the ‘higher’ ground at personal cost even if that means being put in danger or having a relationship with another character suffer because of it.”

Iggo also noted that the game’s engines track every decision players make. Statistics for the larger story-changing choices are displayed at the end of each episode, while the video trailers offer a more in-depth look into smaller, more subtle choices that help shape series protagonist Lee Everett’s personality.

“One of my favorites is where we see people stop punching Andy St. John,” Iggo said. “If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll know that we’re almost up to 1.5 million punches on Andy. In that scene, you wail away on him until you see a wide-angle shot of the other survivors watching you including the impressionable Clementine. The camera then cuts back to a first person perspective, and you can continue to strike, but what we see is that most people stop. They realize that they’re being watched and that people are forming an opinion of them right there, and most people don’t want to be seen as a monster even in light of what the St. John family did. Most people take the higher ground, get up, walk away, and leave Andy to his fate.”

One choice, that wasn’t covered in the statistics trailer, invovles a small moment early on in Episode 2. Players must pass out four pieces of food among ten very hungry survivors. Unsurprisingly, the children — Clementine and Duck — were the most picked, followed by Mark. But it’s the fourth pick, the hard-as-nails curmudgeon Larry, that most surprised Telltale.

Iggo had a theory on why players chose they way they did.

“People chose to feed the guy that had been nothing but trouble since they met him, but I guess they felt sorry for him or his daughter Lilly. Or maybe they hoped that, by feeding him, he might tone down his aggression towards them and perhaps not reveal to the group what he knows about [Lee’s] past,” said Iggo.

However, players will never know if their kindness mattered to Larry as he meets his maker at the end of Episode 2. And if thought that was shocking, you haven’t seen anything yet.

“In terms of absolute heartbreak in the episodes we’ve seen so far, [Episode 3: Long Road Ahead] takes the crown. You’re really going to have your morals tested right from the opening scenes of the episode, and since the bulk of people who play the game seem to make decisions based on what they would actually do in the situations presented to them, this episode is going to hold up a very dark mirror for a lot of people.”

Whether player’s good actions are a result of their naturally kind hearts or they’re desire as gamer’s to get the best ending possible, it is still nice to see that during the apocalypse we may have some kind survivors at least.

Concept Art Released For Cancelled “The Sandman” Project

One of the world’s most celebrated comics of the past 25 years, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, has been on a long and tedious journey to the silver screen. However, the project has repeatedly fallen through much to chagrin of it’s devoted fans. Gaiman had originally pitched the project to studio executives only to have it not pan out with Warner bros.

The Sandman was published by DC Comics, however, beginning with issue #47, it was placed under the imprint Vertigo. It chronicles the adventures of Dream (of the Endless), who rules over the world of dreams. It ran for 75 issues from January 1989 until March 1996. Gaiman’s contract stipulated that the series would end when he left it.

For fans who are well acquainted with the Sandman world, they will notice that the concept art released from the failed project covers virtually the entire run of the comic. Fans can also now OWN the exclusive artwork as Gaiman himself tweeted a message regarding the cancelled project and concept art:

“Some years ago, I had to pitch/explain SANDMAN to Warners. Jill thompson illustrated the pitch. That art’s for sale.”

You can see some samples of the original art below:

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Casts Another Tribute: Cashmere

Lionsgate has been having a field day releasing the names of each new tribute one by one. Today they have announced that Stephanie Leigh Schlund has been cast in the role of Cashmere, the former female victor from District 1 who is reaped along side her brother Gloss.

Cashmere and Gloss are both tributes for the 75th Hunger Games Quarter Quell, a special anniversary Games in which all the tributes are former victors. Cashmere and Gloss ( to be played by Alan Ritchson) had won their games fairly recently as Katniss remembers watching them when she was younger. Both are in their mid twenties and a part of the career pack. On Day 2 of the Third Quarter Quell, both are killed by Johanna and Katniss. Katniss shoots an arrow into Gloss’ right temple, while Johanna Mason throws an axe into Cashmere’s chest.

Stephanie Leigh Schlund is best known for appearing in several television series including “Drop Dead Diva,” and films including The Last Song. She can next be seen in the upcoming Fox series “The Following,” premiering this fall.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire picks up right after the first novel as Katniss and Peeta deal with the aftermath of returning home both as Victors. However, 6 months after returning home, they must embark on a victory tour throughout all the Districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever.

The film will be directed by Francis Lawrence, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. The novel is the second of the series written by Suzanne Collins.

Lionsgate will release The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on November 22, 2013.

New Walking Dead Season 3 Photo And An Update From Robert Kirkman

While fans await the premiere of season 3 of AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead,” creator, Robert Kirkman has released a set photo as well as offered a short update for the newest season.

The series started out with a six-episode first season, which was followed by a thirteen-episode second season. And coming this fall, we’ll see the first eight episodes of what will go on to be a sixteen-episode third season. As of last week, production on the midseason finale has wrapped.

He recently tweeted,

We wrapped on the mid-season finale of @WalkingDead_AMC a few hours ago. Amazing work from all involved, this Georgia crew kicks ass!

Kirkman also shared the following photo, which gives us a look at the Woodbury welcome center.

Woodbury may seem like a welcoming safe haven for Rick and the gang, but anyone who knows whats in store for the crew, Woodbury is anything but. The band of survivors have a tough season ahead of them, between the walkers and the other’s still alive. This new season will also see the introduction of the highly anticipated character, The Governor.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC with new episodes October 14. Those looking for a way to pass the time between now and then might check out the Walking Dead Facebook game.