Caffeinated Clint
“Ghost Rider” and “American Beauty” star Wes Bentley has joined the cast of Gary Ross’ “The Hunger Games”, based on the book – my wife raves about – by Suzanne Collins. Bentley is playing Seneca Crane, the role Woody Harrelson was rumoured for a few days ago (“Hunger Games” fans say Harrelson would never have been a fit for the part; possible he was/is up for a different role), and the dude behind the kid-on-kid game.
Here’s the press release thanks to Lionsgate :
WES BENTLEY CAST AS SENECA CRANE IN LIONSGATE’S THE HUNGER GAMES
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 05, 2011- Lionsgate® and the filmmakers of THE HUNGER GAMES are pleased to announce that actor Wes Bentley (AMERICAN BEAUTY, GHOST RIDER) has been cast in the role of Seneca Crane in the much anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ worldwide smash hit novel.
Bentley joins a cast of talented young actors – Jennifer Lawrence as series heroine Katniss Everdeen with Willow Shields as little sister Primrose, and Josh Hutcherson, who was cast as Peeta Mellark, with Liam Hemsworth in the role of Gale Hawthorne. Paula Malcomson will be playing Katniss and Primrose’s mother. It was also announced that Elizabeth Banks has signed on for the part of Katniss’ pre-games handler Effie Trinket.
Bentley is represented by WME and Untitled Entertainment.
About The Role
Seneca Crane is the “Head Gamemaker” of the 74th Hunger Games, in which heroine Katniss Everdeen and childhood acquaintance Peeta Mellark are forced to compete against one another and 22 other young people in a life-threatening survival setting after Katniss bravely volunteers herself to enter the arena in the place of her younger sister.About The Film
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.
Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.THE HUNGER GAMES will be directed by Gary Ross, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. Collins’ best-selling novel, which has over 3 million copies in print in the United States alone, is the first in a trilogy of novels which have developed a global following.
Lionsgate will release “The Hunger Games” on March 23, 2012.
Official Hunger Games Movie Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/OfficialHungerGamesMovieOfficial Hunger Games Movie Twitter:
http://twitter.com/thehungergames
Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson star in “The Hunger Games”, opening 2012.
