Epic post rewrite:
i am simultaneously excited for this movie and disgusted by its inevitability. Absolutely loved the first book, second book was decent the third book was pretty meh and rushed... but ANNNNyway. I am excited by the distant prospect that it might actually be done right (very distant)... disgusted by the prospect that it will probably end up being some studio slop ala Golden Compass. There is virtually no way that they can pull off the intense critique of violence and the media while remaining a PG-13 movie. As I read the books I regarded them as ruthlessly bleak and violent-- there's a lot of potential in that respect. In fact, in order to do justice to the messages of the books, I think it is absolutely necessary to be just that: bleak and unabashedly violent. Although someone should probably give me some examples that prove otherwise-- I'd be glad to have them.
Firstly, all the aforementioned directors are weak. Sam Mendes? Seriously? American Beauty was pretty overrated and totally different from this-- revolutionary road was crappy.
In my dream world Danny Boyle and Kathryn Bigelow are the front runners. They both have the necessary eye that will ground the story in both violence and believability. Even Peter Jackson floats across my minds eye as a stirring possibility (regardless of the King Kong flop).
To say there are frontrunners already smacks of rumor sites just making stuff up. They always do (take any superhero movie/superhero site for instance). Annnyway, Chloe whatsherface may have too much recognition for my taste by the time production begins-- I'd hate to see an overused actor get the role. Ideally Katniss would be virtually unknown. Appearance-wise though an AnnaSophia Robb would do the trick (with brown hair of course):
The fans are all oogling Alex Petty for Peeta, but he's probably slightly too pretty (the execs undoubtedly believe there's no such thing)
Haymitch... hmmm someone along the lines of Sean Penn with less name/face recognition. He'd be great in the role, but he's just too damn famous.
Gale: ah if we could but rewind time 8 years and use Ben Barnes.
And then the score... who would I choose from my treasure trove of favorites?
Loved Clinton Shorter's work on District 9 but it's pretty limited to that... need to hear more.
Bear McCreary's work on Battlestar Gallactica was great-- but maybe too much?
Clint Mansell and John Murphy are both masters of atmosphere.
If we're going standard, John Ottman all the way.
