Francis Lawrence Confirms Catching Fire Filming Has Wrapped

At CinemaCon this week, Francis Lawrence confirmed that filming for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has wrapped, and they are now in post production. The news comes via Perri Nemiroff from Movies.com. From her Twitter:

There's still a long road ahead until Catching Fire, and Mockingjay is reported to start filming in September, so it'll be a while before Francis Lawrence gets to take a breath.

Exclusive: Where Did Catching Fire Film in L.A.?

All we've had going for us in terms of production news is that Catching Fire is back to production, and we have yet to hear that things have wrapped up. Last year there was an announcement that they wrapped filming, and I expect that we will hear the same regarding Catching Fire. In March there was rumor that they were doing 2 weeks in Hawaii and two weeks in L.A, thanks to Russ Bowen. This piece of information relates to what we have found out in the past week and a half.

According to a few reliable sources, sometime in the past two weeks Catching Fire filmed in the Universal Studios backlot. This happening was extremely under the radar and secret.  During filming no one was allowed to go anywhere near the set, not even the daily tours that frequent the backlot.

So where and what were they filming? We know that if there was only one location on the backlot they filmed, it was at "Falls Lake". Typically productions have Falls Lake drained of its water and use it for all the wide open space it gives. Some witnessed the set had towers and formed a fenced in area. Seems like it could be extra reaping shots or perhaps some sort of unknown district scene. Whether this was the first or second unit is unknown.

Any guesses as to what this scene could have been? Let us know in the comments.

Catching Fire Production Schedule Opens

Remember the Fox/Lionsgate debacle concerning Jennifer Lawrence's scheduling?

The reason that the Catching Fire production schedule is so cramped is because the X-Men First Class sequel was due to start production in January. Now it seems they are pushing production to April, which if this is indeed true, means the production schedule can relax a little.

From Film Thrasher:

Since earlier this year, there has been a large focus on Jennifer Lawrence and two of her upcoming projects: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and X-Men: Days of Future Past. The actress torn between both sequels, reports surfaced that 20th Century Fox would be aiming for a January start which would only rush the production for Catching Fire in the process. But in the months since, Days of Future Past has hit at least one major snag while filming still continues strong for Catching Fire. Now, it seems one of the two studios have finally budged and finally makes more sense of the schedule at hand.

The Geek Files over at Coventry Telegraph (via CBM) reports that filming for X-Men: Days of Future Past has been pushed from a January 2013 start to an April date. The push allows not only for an extended filming of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire for Lawrence, but will also give Bryan Singer time to adjust the script for Days of Future Past into his vision before pre-production begins and as set begin construction.

Source: FilmThrasher