Young Adult Fiction for Adults discussion
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The Hunger Games by Suzzane Collins
Oops, I meant the pilot not the captain, the one with the reddish hair, but I can go with him looking a bit like Nathan Fillion too. Maybe he's related to both of them. Maybe they had a love child.
Stacia *kpop stylist wrote: "Oops, I meant the pilot not the captain, the one with the reddish hair, but I can go with him looking a bit like Nathan Fillion too. Maybe he's related to both of them. Maybe they had a love child."I knew who you meant :)
I am double posting! I already put this in my other group, but they are coming up with some crazy ideas for the other HG parts on EW.com! I mean for Haymish they are naming Drew Carry, Hugh Laurie, Collin Farrell, Karl Urban, Alan Richman, and even John Goodman!
I am devastated by the casting. First they screwed up with Katniss, and now Peeta?? I can't handle it! And I personally hate Gale but to cast Liam Hemsworth is almost an insult to the books ;) hopefully Josh Hutcherson can pull it off but he is so tiny and he looks like Elijah Woods or whatever from LOTR Disappointed is the word of the day!
Latasha wrote: "I am devastated by the casting. First they screwed up with Katniss, and now Peeta?? I can't handle it! And I personally hate Gale but to cast Liam Hemsworth is almost an insult to the books ;) hope..."Being devastated by movie casting may be a little extreme. I mean if they'd cast Miley Cyrus as Katniss maybe I could see that term. But Jennifer Lawrence is a very talented actress.
Devastated is dramatic. Obviously I'm still goin to see it but they had plenty of opportunities to cast this movie properly but I hope they are right in the end.
I have a question. Am I the only one who is frustrated that the YA community is so focused on the appearance of the actors? It's not really significant to the plot. And I'm just as in love with Peeta Mellark as the next person. It just seems so shallow and I'm always trying to convince people that YA is deep and awesome. But when I try to search on twitter all the comments are like "OMG He doesn't look right" and I just want to bang my head against the wall.I wrote a blog on it: http://galavantinggirlscout.blogspot....
Please don't take offense. I think most of the people I know here are smart and decidedly non-shallow. I'm just hoping that I'm not completely alone in this sentiment.
I just have to comment that this conversation is cracking my up. I really couldn't care less who is cast and who isn't. I'll decide whether to spend my money seeing it when it comes out.
Becca wrote: "I just have to comment that this conversation is cracking my up. I really couldn't care less who is cast and who isn't. I'll decide whether to spend my money seeing it when it comes out."Deciding based on the trailers/reviews is very legitimate to me!
I am just excited they are actually getting started on the movie! I am going to focus on that. Can't wait to see the set!
Catie wrote: "Haha, sing it Cassi! I love reading other people's rants."It was totally a rant. Twitter searching too often leads to those.
And Heidi that's what led me to twitter searches. I'm nervous about the movie but excited that its not just an ambiguous "movie" but actually has a cast & everything now! But its hard to be excited when everywhere you see woe and dismay.
Focus on positives people! (right Cassi :)
Hollywood usually ruins the story line as well as the characters... that's generally why people are so upset when wrong actors are cast. It can never be as good as the book but hey you would think they could at least get the visuals right! On a side note people generally are cast for their looks, and the description of Katniss was never gorgeous and tall. She is described as plain with gray eyes. Hollywood takes away the meaning in the book by basing the characters who are cast solely on their looks. Katniss loses her definition as a strong female lead because people will only think "Wow she's hot".
I don't think that's true. I think an actress who's considered 'hot' can still be a strong female lead and can even make us not see her as 'hot'. IF she's good. And I also don't think that Hollywood generally casts for their looks. We had a conversation here a while back about how some of the best castings didn't look anything like how they were described in the book. Catie mentioned a few Denzel Washington roles.
I think that the movie stands a better chance of being 'good' if the casting directors look at talent first, and not on who has olive skin and brown hair. The movies that were casted on looks first and talent second are usually the ones that wind up with poor acting, which is way worse in my book then whether or not the male hero is blond.
Yes I agree Wendy. Good points. I just don't have faith that they can pull off something as big as The Hunger Games in the first place. Look at Harry Potter... Most of those movies are ruined story line wise. If they screw that up, which I'm betting on as a pessimist, the movie will look or feel nothing like the original story.
message 917:
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Brittany (finally graduated and can once again read for fun)
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Becca wrote: "I just have to comment that this conversation is cracking my up. I really couldn't care less who is cast and who isn't. I'll decide whether to spend my money seeing it when it comes out."Yay Becca. You steal my thoughts yet again!
I think I already posted my thoughts a few pages back. And to be honest I don't think I've seen any of these actors in anything. I'll wait for the movie and judge from the trailers.
I don't think Hollywood always casts for looks (sometimes they do). Just take Johnny Depp (beautiful beautiful man) and look at how many different ways he's looked. Benny & Joon - Hot & Adorable
Pirate of the Carribean - In need of a shower (yet somehow sexy)
Willy Wonka - complete creepster
And also whenever a role calls for someone ugly & overweight they usually just pick a pretty actress, make her gain weight, then give her an oscar for the trouble.
I've always been uncertain about the Hunger Games movies adaption specifically because the narrative is originally in first person and movies are a 3rd person medium. However if they're going pull it off having the best YA actors is the only way it's going to work. And they seem to be shooting for "Who is the most talented YA actor out there" and they'll figure out costumes secondary
I think people need to chillax and grow up. A movie will never be 100% true to the original book.So freaking what if Katniss isn"t cast how you would like? I think it is totally unfair for people to judge without having seen the final character shots in full costume. Hair colour means nothing if the person has the acting talent of, say, Kirsten Stewart.
Also, it does bug me that the focus is on the love triangle and not the true message of the books.
Leave the casting to the professionals. :) I can only hope that the movie is not just about some twisted dystopian love triangle.
Latasha - I've read all the Harry Potter books multiple times and have never thought that the movies where horrible in comparison. Some things had to be adapted or changed just because a Movie is shorter and more condensed, but overall they did an excellent job taking the concept of the book and translating it to movie without throwing away the integrity of the story. (Some movies were better then others, but that's to be expected.) I commend them. I mean, think about the Harry Potter movies and then compare them to Eragon or Percy Jackson.Still I agree with you that I'm worried that Hunger Games is too much for them to handle. Not because I don't think that MAKING it a good movie will be hard, it won't. They can do it, they aren't nearly as long as HP. I worry more about how they will handle the violence of the books. To truly show the meaning and the horror of the Hunger Games they will need an 'R' rating, which eliminates a majority of their target audience. On the flip side, to give it a PG-13 rating they'll have to tone down the battles in the Hunger Games which doesn't do the story justice... but we shall see.
Catie, Monique and Cassi - I agree 100%! As much as I love Peeta, if they try to get around the problem of how to film the violence of the Hunger Games by amping up the love triangle and making it a version of Twilight (i.e stupid love triangle), THAT's when I'll be livid and rabid!
Wendy- good point about the violence. I didn't consider a PG13 rating being in the balance. As far as the love triangle, this is one more reason why I think the casting is screwy. The girl casted as Katniss is incredibly beautiful and Liam Hemsworth is too. I feel like they're going to " sex it up " and make the story more involved between Katniss/Peeta/Gale. I understand everyones point about there being a reason these actors were chosen but at the same time Hollywood has a hard time embracing a good story over sex and violence. I'm interested to see how they balance it out because I really think these books deserve a good movie.
Well from what I hear Jennifer Lawrence pulled off the role in Winter's Bone wonderfully, toning down her looks. And I'm not familiar with Liam, but his brother Chris is a pretty good actor, so I'm hoping the same is true of him. I don't think either of them are 'sexpots' (like Megan Fox, for instance). I really think the casting is going to work out fine, as long as the screenplay, directing and acting is where it should be.
Again can I just say how excited I am that they are finally moving forward at all with this project! I can not picture the book as a movie at all so I am anxious to see what they do. I sure as heck didn't think they could create the world Harry Potter lives in with dementors and such, but they did. I can't wait until they start filming! This will be one movie I check for movie stills - usually I could care less about those :)
It's funny, I had never heard of Jennifer Lawrence before she was being considered for Katniss's role. I saw her in the Winter's Bone trailers and thought she really wasn't that pretty, not that the role of Katniss calls for it, but now I'm looking through her other pictures and she really can pull off sexy too, but it's more of the girl next door look than the sexpot look imo.
I am especially looking forward to how Jennifer looks in the movie stills. She seems like she can change her looks up from picture to picture. Super excited!
Yep, her look definitely varies. I can hardly wait to see what they do with the "girl on fire" scene.
Oh yes Becca! I can't wait to see what they do with that scene either.
It better be brilliant because that's one of the defining moments of the book.
It makes me want to get on my reread!
I'm also looking forward to Katniss's first view of the capitol, first look at the actual Hunger Games arena, and her shooting the pig when she is displaying her talents. Those are all scenes that had defining moments or breath-taking vistas for me.
I LOVE the Hunger Games the are awesome!
So I just finished Catching Fire and I kind of loved it. It wasn't as good as the first one but it still had me turning the pages. Which is the most I hope for out of books these days.
Gini wrote: "So I just finished Catching Fire and I kind of loved it. It wasn't as good as the first one but it still had me turning the pages. Which is the most I hope for out of books these days."Yay! Glad you liked it.
Have you (general, not specific) any word on the possible rating for the movies? I'm just curious as the story as some rather horrifying parts. Are they going to water down the story, do you think?
Well, Collins said she wanted to see the bloodbath at the Cornucopia, Rue's death, and other things like that, and Gary Ross considers her opinion highly, so I don't really think they're going to censor a lot of things.
Just heard on the radio that the Hunger Games trilogy is on this year's list of banned books by the ALA.http://www.twilightlexicon.com/2011/0...
The ALA needs to be overthrown. There should almost NEVER be a reason that a book should be banned!
They even banned The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian! What is the world coming to?! What the heck are kids going to read that has any true substance.
Does anyone even pay attention to them? I think they're rediculous, so I don't even bother.
I don't think they're actually trying to ban them, by the looks of things (thankfully)! I just looked them up, since I'd never heard of them, and it seems they're aiming to draw attention to 'controversial/criticized' books so that people will actually read them - their slogan (according to Jill's link) is "Celebrate freedom: read a banned book!" :)
The ALA does ban books from libraries and school ciriculum (sp?) though. They work to prevent books being banned, but if they get enough people challenging a book, it is banned. And the list referred to in the post isn't books that have been banned, it's books that have been challenged.
When I said "they" I was referring to the lists of "Challenged" books. I think it's ridiculous that people even try to ban books, so I don't bother reading the lists. I'll read what I want. I should have been clearer.
Oh wow, I didn't realise that! Not so good, then :S Odd that they would do both - ban things and try to get people excited about freedom of speech. I wonder if we have an organization that does that over here in the UK? *runs off to Google it*
I read what I want, but I can because I'm an adult. I get bothered that there are good books out there (including classics) that are banned from school curriculum's, or worse rewritten. But the thought there can be a book like Sherman Alexie's banned because they deem it to have 'too much racism' just gets my goat. I loved reading Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry in school, or Sounder.
Roll of Thunder is coming up on my re-read list. I remember being completely touched and awed by the story when I was younger even if I don't remember what it was about exactly. People need to read that kind of literature, where the feeling stays with them years after they finish reading. My kids will read everything, and I'll be there to discuss it with them whether it's part of their school cirriculum or not.
Wendy F wrote: "They even banned The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian! What is the world coming to?! What the heck are kids going to read that has any true substance."The first reason for the ban that pops into my head is masturbation. LOL. Shame young boys SHAME
I don't anything should be removed from a library but I do think sometimes you can't fully appreciate a book to a certain age. When my brother was in middle school he asked me about the Golden Compass series. I told him "The first one's fine but I'd wait" not because I think they're evil books (I like them) but I think the later ones are harder to understand with all the dust...and...uh...other stuff that happens. But thats not banning.
Oh, I definitely think there should be guidance. But I agree, that's different from banning.
I agree there is a difference between determining age appropriateness and banning, but I think I get more frustrated when an organization or institution tries to ban books. Who are they to determine what my child or I read?
In my opionion, the reason a lot of these books are 'challenged' is because parents want to avoid having to explain certain things to their children. Sure, some things may be uncomfortable, but then again, where else are they going learn important stuff from? That being said, doesn't banning something only fuel the desire to see why there was so much uproar over it? (this obviously doesn't only apply to books)
I see why people try to ban books. There are definitely some books out there that are not appropriate for mid-grade and sometimes even High school kids to be reading as part of their cirriculum at school, and should only really be read when there's an adult that they can discuss it with. "Not Without My Daughter" comes to mind in that area of discussion. Great book, amazing story, but not something I would want my (hypothetical) middle-schooler reading, especially without me to help them understand some of the more graphic details and work through it. But to ban books from a library is just plain ridiculous in my opinion.
Young Adult Fiction for Adults
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I actually don't mind Liam as Gale, provided I can't hear his Australian accent. I think, other then the blond hair, he's got the right look for Gale.