The Hunger Games: Catching Fire‘s cast and crew have confirmed three big changes coming to the film that are very different from the book.
The news was passed along by Entertainment Weekly in their Fall Movie Preview, on newsstands Friday.
For one, Peeta is not paralyzed at the start of The Hunger Games tournament. “We manned him up a little,” said director Francis Lawrence. “And by the way it didn’t take a lot, just little choices to make here and there. The story doesn’t really change, his relationship with Katniss doesn’t change, he’s just a different kind of character.”
Added Josh Hutcherson who plays the character, “The option is for either me drowning or sitting there like a cat batting my paw into the water. Either way the visual is horrible.”
Change number two: Bonnie and Twill, the District 8 escapees who tell Katniss about District 13 have been removed. Producers had to come up with a new way to introduce District 13, but the article does not reveal how they accomplished it.
The third and final change (in this article, anyway) is the removal of the character Darius who intervenes during Gale’s whipping. No details were provided concerning how the scene plays out.
Said producer Nina Jacobson about the changes, “It’s as agonizing for us to lose things from the book as it is for a fan. 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.”
Jacobson brings up a good point: There are already many important characters in The Hunger Games series, and introducing several more can make it difficult for the audience to follow. They may also feel underwhelmed.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire hits theaters November 22. Do these changes bother you, or have you come to accept the regular cuts made with every book to film adaptation?
Thanks, EW.
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