The Hunger Games

SNL will take a short hiatus after Tracy Morgan’s triumphant return, opening back up on November 7 with a likely bit of controversy, thought we can much more confidently bank on the subsequent outing. November 14 will see the odds ever in our favor, as Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks takes the stage for the first time as host.

The first clip from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 has arrived, along with Katniss’ first set of orders. In the new clip, which was released to celebrate the first advanced ticket sales for the film, Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss is grouped into her new squad. Meet the Star Squad, comprised of Katniss, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson).

If you’ve been putting off watching The Hunger Games, World War Z or the Rocky movies on Netflix, now would be the time to take advantage of them as the company’s deal with Epix is coming to an end. Netflix has opted out of renewing their contract with the premium cable service, just as they previously did with Starz. As a result, several major films will disappear from Netflix in September.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is going to be one the highest grossing films of 2015 no matter what, so every trailer and poster can’t help but feel ever-so-slightly redundant. Oh, remember that movie that you and everyone you know is already going to see anyway? Here’s an unnecessary reminder that it exists! And yet Lionsgate has been playing fans like a fiddle with their marketing campaign, and the latest trailer is one seriously impressive advertisement.

Not long ago, we heard a report suggesting that Lionsgate is planning on developing more Hunger Games sequels (or prequels, maybe), which makes sense given the franchise’s vast global success. Josh Hutcherson appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show with Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth to promote The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, where he added fuel to the sequel rumor fire.

In addition to being an Oscar-winning actress and the lead of a billion-dollar movie franchise in The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence can now add best-selling singer to her resume. The song “The Hanging Tree” was performed by Lawrence in Mockingjay — Part 1 and later released to radio stations where it debuted at #12 on the Hot 100, and on iTunes where it sold over 1 million copies. This are just some of the facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which travels to District 13 for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay!

Lots of ‘Hunger Games’ news today for you Panemaniacs. In addition to ‘Mockingjay - Part 2’ coming out in IMAX 3D, Lionsgate also announced that the franchise may not end with the upcoming fourth film, which is due in theaters on November 20.

For the past two years, ‘The Hunger Games’ movies have topped the yearly box-office charts, beating two Marvel movies (‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’) without the help of 3D ticket sales. Well, today Lionsgate announced that ‘Mockingjay, Part 2’ will be released in IMAX and 3D, which should put it squarely in the running with ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ and ‘Avengers 2’ as the biggest movie of 2015.

As she recently told David Letterman, Jennifer Lawrence’s biggest fear is singing in public. Not death, not small, enclosed spaces, not tracker-jacker venom; singing in public. This posed a particular problem for the young star in ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1’ because the script called for Katniss Everdeen to singing a song to her fellow rebels. And Lawrence had to actually sing it in front of the rest of the cast, a capella, with no voice double. The song, “The Hanging Tree,” is important to the movie. It becomes a rallying cry for the growing movement against the tyrannical President Snow and the rest of the Capitol. It needed to be real and heartfelt. And it needed to come from Lawrence.

The penultimate entry into the sprawling and blood-stained 'Hunger Games' franchise takes a decidedly hip and totally en vogue approach to its final two movies—splitting one (relatively slim) novel into two feature films, all the better to dive deeper into the burning revolution headed up by a reluctant Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), further explore the various districts that make up Panem, and just make piles of cash in the process. ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part I’ might be half a story (and our review says as much), but it's pretty remarkable that screenwriters Danny Strong and Peter Craig were able to squeeze out an entire 123-minute feature film from 187 pages of a single novel (yes, we counted).