Liam Hemsworth Elizabeth Banks and Francis Lawrence at Cinema Con

Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, and director Francis Lawrence were on hand to present The Hunger Games: Catching Fire teaser trailer at Lionsgate's Cinema Con panel today. While no new footage was presented, we do know that the movie has officially wrapped, and the trailer will premiere in theatres in two weeks, ahead of Iron Man 3. 

Director Francis Lawrence revealed that he was still "furiously" cutting the film. Hemsworth kicked in a vote of confidence. "I know that he's not going to disappoint anyone," he said.

"I think we've actually been able to really ratchet up the emotion and the scope this time," said Francis Lawrence.

Keeping in the vein of Effie, her pragmatic, image-conscious character, Elizabeth Banks gave a nod to the studio's early marketing efforts.

"They're getting really excited," she said of Lionsgate. "They're kicking it into overdrive on this one."

Elizabeth Banks and Liam Hemsworth at Cinema Con 2013

Liam Hemsworth and Francis Lawrence at Cinema Con 2013

HUGE thanks to LiamHemsworthBr for these beautiful photos! 

VIDEO: Alan Ritchson Talks 'Catching Fire'

Alan Ritchson, who plays Gloss in Catching Fire, walked the red carpet at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards and talked about his his positive experience on set.  

Get More: 2013 MTV Movie Awards, Latest Movie News

from MTV Hollywood Crush:

"No hazing, fortunately," he said, laughing. Instead, he described "Catching Fire" as a great place to be, adding, "But to be a part of that, it was pretty cool. Jennifer's star just continued to rise, even through production...it was just cool to be there."

 And not only was Alan not put through the wringer by his co-stars, he said that everyone, particularly the fantabulous Stanley Tucci (with whom he did his pre-Games interview scene), was "super-generous and giving."

Meanwhile, the actor says that the scenes he's most looking forward to seeing on the big screen are the same one the fans are likely clamoring for: the highly anticipated action sequences from the 75th Hunger Games.

"We shot some cool scenes," he said. "I like the really physical kind of action stuff. I spent months training for this stuff, fight training, and becoming a dagger specialist. All those things in the arena are going to be a lot of fun."

Alan also talked to E! about watching Sam Claflin break his hand during production of Catching Fire:

"Sam got hurt the worst," Alan Ritchson, who plays Gloss in Catching Fire, told me at the MTV Movie Awards. "He broke his hand doing a stunt."

Don't look for footage of the mishap in a DVD extra, though. 

"It was in rehearsal, so we weren't even shooting," Ritchson said. "He broke it on the stunt guy, warming up. I was standing right next to him. It was tough to watch."

But, Ritchson said, Claflin "took it like a champ—he took it and kept moving."

Elena Sanchez Talks to Desde Hollywood About Her Role in 'Catching Fire'

The lovely and kick-ass (check out her stunt reel below!) Elena Sanchez plays Cecelia in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Desde Hollywood sat down with her to discuss the movie and her career as a stunt woman and actress. 

From DesdeHollywood:

What attracted you to the risky business of performing stunts?

Doing stunts is basically like being a professional athlete. When I stopped competing gymnastics after college I was looking to fill the hole that left in my life. I started acting and going to drama school. Stunts then gave me a reason to keep training, stay in shape, and continue performing!

What was your reaction when you found out that you had been cast in Catching Fire?

To be honest, I didn’t really believe it until my first day on set. When I got the call, after about five minutes of hyperventilating, I told myself not to get too excited. In this business there are a lot of disappointments. I kept thinking they had made some kind of mistake and were going to find someone else!

In what ways can you relate to ‘Cecelia’, your character?

Since Cecelia is only mentioned a few times in the book, the love she has for her children that are taken away from her as she is chosen for The Hunger Games kind of becomes a defining characteristic. I have never had to make that kind of sacrifice, but love for people, the world, and life is one of the most important philosophies I live by. I tried to relate to her by thinking about what it would be like to give up some of the most important things in my life, but knowing that it was for a greater cause.

How did the established actors welcome a newcomer like yourself?

On every movie I’ve been on I’ve had the honor of working with people who are extremely talented and have been in the business for years, if not decades. Every day on set is like being in a classroom, I learn so much from them. Not once have I come across someone who was not welcoming! I have been very blessed.

How well would Elena Sanchez do in a “Hunger Games-like” event?

Well, it would all depend on my competition. But beware! I can climb on things, swing from trees, and flip around… AND I have been working on my Ninja skills!

Many thanks to Elena Sanchez for this exclusive interview (in Spanish here)!

See what Elena is up to and follow her at twitter.com/TheElenaSanchez andfacebook.com/TheElenaSanchez and check out her website elenasanchez.com.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is out in theaters November 22.

See the entire article HERE. Many thanks to our friends at RealOrNotRealNews for the tip!

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Scans From EW's Tablet Edition

Can't wait until tomorrow to get your hands on Entertainment Weekly's Catching Fire issue? We've got the scans from the tablet edition! Never has there been a better day to be an Entertainment Weekly subscriber!

Check out some great new photos and tons of behind the scenes scoop:

 

 

 Entertainment Weekly's Catching Fire issue hits newsstands Friday, January 11th. 

What We WON'T See In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

In an exclusive with Entertainment Weekly, Director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson share which characters and scenes didn't make the cut. From EW: 

Fans of Suzanne Collins’s  words, you can rest easy. The adaptation of the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire will be “very, very true to book,” promises new director Francis Lawrence.

This week’s cover story  describes the whirlwind few weeks that followed once director Gary Ross stepped away from the helm in April. “We were five months from when we needed to start shooting and we had no script and no director,” says producer Nina Jacobson. Once Lawrence came aboard, Jacobson put together her new director with series mastermind Collins to outline the script. Their main task, says Lawrence, was figuring out a way to best distill the novel’s dense first third, during which our hero Katniss Everdeen, home from her victory tour but tormented by the ghosts of war, struggles internally with her next move.

Lawrence says he and Collins were always in agreement about what from the book needed to be distilled, though he was coy about cuts. When asked, for instance, whether we should expect to see Bonnie and Twill — the District 8 runaways Katniss stumbles upon in the woods who first alert her to both the rebellion she inadvertently sparked and the existence of District 13 — he at first demurred. “You’ve got to wait and see,” he urged. But when it was pointed out that there is in fact no Bonnie and Twill listed on the movie’s IMDB page, he gave it up. “Ah, right,” he said with a laugh. On how the movie will now introduce District 13, Lawrence would only say that “it was fun figuring out new ways around things and new ways of doing things.” With Bonnie and Twill gone, so too is the scene of Katniss scaling a tree and then leaping over District 12′s electrified fence. And Darius, District 12′s youngest peacekeeper who intervenes during Gale’s whipping and then sentenced to the life of an Avox, is another who didn’t make the leap from page to screen.

If the loss of Darius bums you out (and it should!), know at least that the filmmakers feel your pain. “It’s as agonizing for us to lose things from the book as it is for a fan,” says producer Nina Jacobson. “I want every single thing in there. But you know what? If you have to give up something in order to give more time to Katniss and Gale or to Effie as she starts to feel a conscience, you make the sacrifices in order to serve the characters and themes that are more essential.”

First Look! The Hunger Games: Catching Fire-Entertainment Weekly!

Entertainment Weekly is giving us our first official look at Katniss and Finnick in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire! 

 From EW.com:

The revolution has been sparked. In this week’s cover story, EW traveled to Waikiki, Hawaii where cast and crew were in the final days of production on the eagerly anticipated Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire (in theaters Nov. 21). Just as the revolution that could embolden the people of Panem rests on young Katniss Everdeen’s shoulders, the success of the franchise depends largely upon Jennifer Lawrence. After spending the day outrunning death in a nearby jungle, the 22-year-old actress ordered herself a Budweiser and kicked back in the Trump balcony lounge to discuss the sequel, her life now as a blockbuster star, and her willful inability to behave like the nice sound-bite machine Hollywood might expect her to be. “It’s almost like I subconsciously don’t want to work anymore so I’m trying to ruin my career,” she says with a laugh at one point, before leaning in close to the reporter’s tape recorder. “I’m pregnant!” she joked.

From her first meeting with new director Francis Lawrence (“I spit egg inside his mouth when I was talking. Into his mouth”) to the raucous party she hosted for the Catching Fire cast and crew (“When Sam walked in I was chasing Woody and we’d flipped over my couch and Woody had a sock all the way down my throat…”), Lawrence was frank and funny and self-aware. “I’m so aware of all the b.s. that surrounds Hollywood,” she says, “and how everyone gets on this high horse and thinks that they’re curing cancer and it makes me so uncomfortable every time I see it. So I go in the exact opposite direction and end up saying something like ‘I’m pregnant!’ when I’m in two franchises.”

Then in an exclusive conversation, director Francis Lawrence described his vision for the sequel, his immediate three-day pow-wow with series writer Suzanne Collins to ready a script, and how one of his inherited cast members had a particularly hard time adjusting to the loss of Hunger Games director Gary Ross. (Woody Harrelson, who plays Katniss and Peeta’s wry and PTSD-ruined wreck of a mentor Haymitch.)

EW also sat down with Sam Claflin, the green-eyed, dimpled Brit who won the role of District 4′s charming and enigmatic golden boy Finnick Odair, for his first Hunger Games interview. He described filming the infamous sugar cube scene, in which Finnick teases Katniss while wearing nothing beyond some strategically placed netting, as “the scariest moment of my life. I’m on Twitter and so many people have been like ‘Don’t mess this up, or we will kill you.’”

The issue will hit newstands Friday, January 11th. More at EW.com

Update on Wed, January 9, 2013 by PanemPropaganda

Here are more photos from the EW article. Plus another snippet of the article:

''These are kids growing up in war who physically, emotionally can't love somebody,'' says Jennifer Lawrence about the uncomfortable triangle between District 12's battle-weary Katniss, Peeta, and her childhood friend Gale that began in The Hunger Games. ''Katniss thinks she can't have a crush on a boy because she's worried about survival every single day. And she can't be a normal 16-year-old meeting her friend out in the woods and practicing kissing because that's not the world that they live in.''

''Jen and Liam have amazing chemistry,'' says director Francis Lawrence of his young stars. ''They have a nice moment right before Katniss is reaped that is the very first thing we shot. And then when Gale has been brought in from the whipping, that's another really nice moment they have alone.'' ''This is the book where you have to understand the pull Katniss feels to both Peeta and Gale,'' say producer Nina Jacobson.

Vote for Catching Fire in MTV's Movie Brawl 2013

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Voting for round one of the MTV Movie Brawl 2013 is officially open, giving you the chance to pick the film you're most excited for in the coming year. Here's how it works: click here, vote for the films you're most excited to see in 2013 from MTV's list of 40 movies. You'll be able to fight for your movie of choice in this play-in round until voting closes early on Monday morning (January 14).

Starting January 14, the original list of 40 will be whittled down to 16 movies based on your votes. So go vote The Hunger Games: Catching Fire! As of this morning, we were in the lead.

Update on Mon, January 28, 2013 by PanemPropaganda

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Wins The MTV Movie Brawl!

From MTV:

After "The Hunger Games" lost a knock-down, drag-out fight at the hands of Robert Pattinson fans and the indie surprise "Cosmopolis," "Catching Fire" has risen from the ashes — and 10 million votes — to claim this year's title as the most anticipated movie of 2013. The victory, however, does mean a disappointing end for "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," the hotly anticipated YA adaptation and the rookie star of the bracket.

Sam Claflin, one of the newest cast members to join the series, shared his excitement about the Movie Brawl victory exclusively to MTV News. "I'm so happy and proud to say I'm a part of 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,' " he said. "Just want to say a big thank you to all the fans worldwide for voting. I'm thrilled to know they are just as excited as I am for the next chapter."

Get the whole story at MTV.com

Catching Fire Set Photos - Katniss in Action!

The latest round of Catching Fire set photos features Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen on set in Hawaii. 

Special thanks to Katniss-Peeta.com for the images.