Jennifer, Josh, and Liam at Camp Mockingjay

Jennifer, Josh and Liam sit around the campfire with Josh Horowitz and talk about their grossest habits, stuff marshmallows into Jen's mouth and talk about bathrooms! Yes, it is funnier than I'm making it sound!

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Mockingjay Part 1 Nominated for 4 MTV Movie Awards

The MTV Movie Awards are coming up, so that means voting is now open!

Vote for Mockingjay Part 1 in these categories for the MTV Movie Awards which air on April 12 at 8/7c.

Movie of the Year

Best Female Performance

Best Musical Moment

Best On-Screen Transformation

MTV MOVIE BRAWL 2015

It's that time of the year again! We were defeated last year but this time around, we made it to the final round! Vote for Mockingjay Part 2 in the 2015 MTV Movie Brawl!

If you need more convincing, here are a few reasons you should vote for Mockingjay Part 2:

1. It's the last Hunger Games movie, and therefore it is our last chance to win
2. The Movie is going to be AWESOME and will put us through the full range of feels 
3. I made this gif:

Do not let my amateur gif-making abilities go to waste! CLICK HERE and vote for Mockingjay Part 2!

LISTEN: Preview of Lorde's 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World'

MTV posted a preview of Lorde's Tears for Fears cover today, and they had great things to say about it!

17-year-old wunderkind Lorde brings out that inherent darkness with her version, giving the track a layer of grime and an ominous build that culminates in the Pure Heroine singer practically keening, "everybody wants to rule the world." It's a dramatic song, a cinematic song, one that evokes all the terror and determination that builds up inside "Hunger Games" protagonist Katniss Everdeen as she prepares to re-enter the deathly arena.

MTV

MTV After Hours: "The Hunger Games Games" with Sam Claflin and Jena Malone

Josh Horowitz is THE BEST!! He always seems to have the most entertaining interviews and this time he puts Sam Claflin and Jena Malone against each other in a head to head challenge.

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Source: MTV

Costume designer Trish Summerville Reveals Secrets from 'Hunger Games' Sequel Set

MTV News chats with Trish Summervile about dressing "daring dames," Katniss' wedding dress, Finnick's parade outfit (was it too 'Chippendales' for a PG-13 movie?), her favorite costume for the movie and much much more! Here are some highilghts

MTV: I’d like to talk about a few pieces in particular, starting with the wedding dress. The description in the book is a little different, so what was your jumping-off point?

Summerville: Well, for the wedding dress, at one point, I was terrified because I think in the book it says there are 18 dresses that come. And I thought, “Oh my god. How are we going to get 18 wedding dresses that fit this?” In the script, with the time frame, we shot one dress. For that, a couple of years ago, I found this designer, Tex Saverio. who’s from Jakarta. I was really drawn to the designs that he did and just hoped one day this would be something. I thought, honestly, I thought more like, I’ll do an editorial where I can run that, because you can be much more free and extreme. When this project came along, and I knew that we needed this wedding dress, he was kind of one of my go-to people.

We had some Skype meetings, and I had an illustrator do an illustration taking a few different parts of dresses he’d done and compiled them together with the color scheme we needed and changed up fabrications for our practical reasons. He and I had these Skype meetings back and forth, and he was so great and so fast. He’d be like, “Let me sketch something, and I’ll call you back.” And a few hours later, I’d get an email of some kind of modified sketch.

[I explained] to him how I needed the cage to kind of have the inflection of fire going up around her face and doing crystals on that and what color the crystals should be and then having these laser-cut feathers put on, so that it’s subtle… And then with that, the fabrication of the skirt could be — we needed all this volume, but we needed it to rise when she starts to spin around. And that was a little bit perplexing for him because his dresses are so many layers, and he does a very couture type of work… It’s not really for function. It’s just for your day and beauty and a gown. And he was just great. And then on the first day, we tried the dress on her, and we had her spin, and it was like this “Ahhhhhhhh.”

MTV: And Finnick's tribute parade outfit is going to be a little different as well? Not just a strategically placed knot of fishing net?

Summerville: You know, we're PG-13. [laughs] We went to Suzanne to see if this is something we have a little liberty to change, because in your mind, you can imagine that as grand as you can, but to try to take that on to film, it doesn't work sometimes. What we ended up deciding on was keeping true to the net. It's a fishing net. It's made of gold fabric. It's knitted-together net, and I made him kind of a kilt. It's more like a gladiator-type skirt, so he has that on, and it's belted, and he has the shells on his neck, which he keeps the whole time. My backstory between Sam and I was that Annie — who he had to leave — it's this necklace that Annie's made for him so that she's always with him when he's away. He keeps it on the whole time ... He was really relieved he has a longer skirt, and he kind of has tights underneath and kind of substantial boots. He's bare-chested, and he worked really hard to get into amazing shape ... I think it's much more interesting than just the net. It would have been a little too Chippendales.

Read the rest of the artcile here

Which costume do you think will be YOUR favorite?

MTV

'Catching Fire': 5 Scenes With Francis Lawrence

So a few months ago, Josh Horowitz from MTV tweeted this picture from his interview with Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence. Now, they've posted the interview where they talk about the 5 scenes, characters and moments the fans are most looking forward to.


Hawaii And Back: How 'Catching Fire's' Jungle Arena Came To Life

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Hear How Jennifer Lawrence Tripped On Her 'Catching Fire' Wedding Dress

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Sugar Cubes, Fish Nets, And Almost Nude: Why Sam Claflin Is Perfect As Finnick

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The Story Behind Philip Seymour Hoffman Playing Plutarch In 'Catching Fire'

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'Catching Fire's' Most Anticipated Scenes Explained: Haymitch Flashbacks, Katniss Versus Snow And More

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So much awesome info and so many things to look forward to! What scene are you guys most excited to see? (Is it even possible to pick just one?!)

Don't forget that Josh Horowitz ALSO tweeted this picture from an interview with Sam Claflin and Jena Malone so make sure you keep an eye out for those videos (hopefully) soon!


Josh Horowitz
MTV

MTV Debuts Catching Fire GIF

Oh, the glory of moving pictures!! The MTV Tumblr unveiled an exclusive GIF on their tumblr, which has us all kinds of excited.

Let the countdown begin! ONLY FOUR MORE DAYS!

Source: MTV tumblr

The Francis Lawrence Interview We've Been Waiting For!

Thank you MTV news, more importantly to the ever awesome Josh Horowitz for bringing two great interviews with Francis Lawrence to the fans. Ever since we found out Francis Lawrence would be helming the rest of the films, we've needed to know at least a little information on how he is handling Catching Fire.

On taking over for Gary Ross

"I liked what Gary did a lot, but I have a different style than he does," Lawrence explained. "So it was very easy for me to come in the room and sit down with the people involved in the movie and sort of say, 'Here's what I like about what Gary did that I would latch on to and hold onto and embrace, and here's the way I would do it differently.' The trickier thing, honestly for me, was sort of stepping into a world, and there's crew members that were on the first movie, obviously an entire cast, all the people that are returning that I inherited. I was nervous about what they were going to feel... I think everybody in general was really gracious and worked really hard and ended up being really fun to work with. I think there were a couple of people that were really bummed that Gary wasn't doing it, and it had less to do with the choice of me coming on than just Gary not doing it. They signed on with Gary; they're friends with Gary; they like Gary. And I think there was definitely some sadness there."

Although we love continuity, it is nice to see a different change of pace for Catching Fire given the natural event of extreme change in the story, not to mention losing the highly debated "shaky cam".

Choosing Finnick

"[Claflin] is very athletic, which is great. He's in great shape. He's very charismatic," Lawrence said. "But I was also looking in the long term. There's kind of a rouge-like quality to him in this book. And long term, he's actually an emotional character and a very loyal character and a character who's in love; a character who experienced quite a lot of sadness. And he was really able to tap into that, as well as being really charming and sexy and handsome as hell."

 Bringing out the real Haymitch

Another item on Lawrence's to-do list was to sit down with actor Woody Harrelson to further refine his approach to alcoholic District 12 mentor Haymitch Abernathy. Harrelson had previously told MTV News that he had pushed for more drunkenness than Ross would allow—something which, along with Haymitch's post-traumatic stress disorder, the director and actor took a closer look at.

"One of the things that we wanted to dive into a little more... is the whole idea of PTSD, and one of the big things for [author] Suzanne[Collins] is just sort of the idea of the consequences of war as kind of one of the backbone theme of the entire series," Lawrence said. "One of the things I really like about this book is you start to see kind of why Haymitch is the way he is, why people are the way they are, so he and I did a fair amount of work in terms of that, in terms of understanding PTSD and how to work with somebody with post-traumatic stress. Also we started messing around a lot with some real humanity in Haymitch because he can be quite cynical and sarcastic at times. But I think there's a more human side to him in this one as well.

 Seems to me that Francis Lawrence has a great handle on the character of Haymitch and his role in Catching Fire. PTSD is a big theme in the books, we're glad to see it being focused on.

The Arena

"The arena stuff is pretty tricky... just because the sort of center of the arena where the cornucopia exists and the water and the spokes. The circular beach with the jungle around it doesn't exist, so we have to sort of piece it all together," he explained. "And you know even though shooting in Hawaii sounds like a lot of fun, it's pretty tricky when you're in the beach and waves and tides. Our set got washed away one day by the tide, and then... shooting in the jungle where there's bugs and mud and rain. The days are short, so you don't have much time, and you're starting to lug around 100-pound IMAX cameras." 

Catching Fire as a Faithful Adaptation

"No, not really [when asked if there are major changes], I would say that it’s a really faithful adaptation. You know, whenever you're adapting something that’s a 12- or 14-hour read down to something that has to be around two hours, there’s going to be some cuts. We definitely made some cuts. I don’t want to go into that, but we did it with Suzanne, and I would say that it’s very, very faithful. We tried to get as much as we could in there."

Scenes Francis is Proud Of

"It's interesting because there’s a very small blur—I want to say it's a paragraph long in the book—but the moment in the arena when the gamemaker starts to spin the cornucopia, and I’m very proud of that. We designed a very cool sequence and created a spinning island, and that’s going to be very, very cool. So that’s kind of fun and very unique. I’ve never seen anything like it. It's cool.

"You know one of the very first things we shot that I like quite a lot is, there is sort of a goodbye before she goes into the arena with Liam that I like a lot. And it was actually—we shot it because we needed summer foliage and summer flowers and things like that. We actually shot it while we were in prep. Very first thing we sort of went out into the meadow, out in the mountains in north Georgia and shot this sequence over three or four hours or so, and I really like it. I think it’s really nice. Jennifer and Liam are really good in it. It’s very nice."

Really excited that the spinning of the Cornucopia hasn't gone by the wayside. However, I'm little sad that Katniss doesn't just get shoved into the train without goodbyes (which is how it is in the book, showing how punishing the Capitol is toward Katniss), but then again maybe it's for the sake of more Gale scenes.

Mockingjay

"Nina, John, Suzanne and I have gone through the book and created the beat sheets for it. And started going through all that and at least marking our initial ideas of what the moments would be and how it all breaks down. And Danny Strong, who’s writing the first one, is working now. So yeah, we’ve actually done a fair amount of work. We're starting to think about where we could shoot it and all of that."

A little concerned that Francis mentions Danny Strong writing "the first one". Seems to me it would be much better to have the same writer for both parts? I'm going to stay hopeful and say they are focusing on the first one and going from there. But seriously, two writers for part 1 and 2 is just silly.

These interviews have given fans a lot of insight and evidence for speculation as for how Catching Fire will be faithfully adapted. Thanks to Josh Horowitz for his amazing interview questions, they are always the questions fans are burning to be answered!

Why is Catching Fire so far away?!

If you want to read the whole interview check out these two posts from MTV:
Source: MTV Interview w/ Francis Lawrence and The Bonus Material

Arena Scenes Shot in IMAX?!

According to Josh Hutcherson, the arena scenes will be shot in IMAX! MTV recently posted a video with Josh Horowitz interviewing Hutcherson, which you can check out below:

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"They actually built a cornucopia in Atlanta that we shot at, and it looks amazing, and the way that the spokes got out, and the way everyone comes up on the pedestals and the water — it looks incredible," he gushed. "I've seen some of the CG renderings that [director] Francis [Lawrence] has worked on, and they look really, really great."
But the morsel fans will savor most is what Hutcherson had to say about the portions being filmed in IMAX.
Following a winning run for "The Hunger Games" in IMAX theaters (despite not being shot in the large format), Lionsgate announced in June that the follow-up would feature scenes filmed specifically for the big big screens, though did not divulge specifics.
"They're shooting, I think, all the stuff in the arena is going to be IMAX," Hutcherson said. "So when you go see it in IMAX, you'll see the regular movie when we're in the Districts and in the Capitol. When you see us go up in the pod in the games, it will open up into IMAX. It will be amazing. It's very cool."

Although it is slightly disappointing the whole movie has not been shot in IMAX, I really think there is something truly creative about the idea of just the arena scenes in IMAX. It's quite a nifty audience immersing tool, as the video mentions connecting the idea to a "Wizard of Oz" moment. Isn't it cool we are getting more and more details about Catching Fire?

Source: MTV

Sam Claflin & Josh Hutcherson are Total Bros

What's this? According to Jennifer Lawrence, Sam Claflin and Josh Hutcherson have a "full blown bromance" that is "adorable" and "romantic". Sounds like the cast is getting along well!!

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source: MTV

The Lost Hunger Games Audition Tapes

Elizabeth Banks spoke with MTV about all the characters that were cut from The Hunger Games and the actors that could have played them. These are their audition tapes:

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#MTVHungerGames TWITTER PARTY FEST!!

Today's the day! The MTV Movie Awards are upon us and Welcome To District 12 is hosting a shindig of epic proportions! We will be tweeting up a storm around 8 PST, which is when red carpet begins for us in Los Angeles. We've put a fancy Twitter widget right here to psyche fans up and tweet pictures of the party we're having as it happens.

So please, drop us a line by tweeting us @WTOD12, and may the odds be ever in your favor when it comes to trying to score those Hunger Games prize packs by tweeting #MTVHungerGames and #HungerGamesDVD.

WELCOME TO DISTRICT 12 Twitter (Courtney)
Tiffany's Twitter

[Twitter widget removed since the awards are over!] 

MTV Movies Awards: The Hunger Games Twitter Party

Sunday night, it's time to party, Tribute style!

The official Twitter account for The Hunger Games (@TheHungerGames) will be hosting a Twitter Party during the MTV Movie Awards! You can follow along with the hashtag #MTVHungerGames and tweet along while watching the main event.

They will also be giving away two awesome Hunger Games DVD prize packs to fans who host their own Twitter parties with their friends. How awesome is that! To do so, you can get a group of friends together to watch the show, and tweet photos of your Twitter party to #MTVHungerGames and #HungerGamesDVD for a chance to win. You can bet your Welcome to District 12 staff will be having our own Twitter party!

Watch the 2012 MTV Movie Awards on Sunday June 3rd at 9pm ET/PT on MTV. 

Don't forget to vote for The Hunger Games which has been nominated in multiple categories, including Best Movie! Also don't forget to #VoteKatniss for Best Hero!

I Bid You Stand, Tributes! MTV Movie Award Voting Begins!

Oh yea, IT IS ON.

 The Hunger Games has snagged EIGHT (count 'em) EIGHT MTV Movie Award nominations. These include Movie of the Year, Best Kiss, Best Female Performance, Best Male Performance, Best On-Screen Transformation, Best Fight, Best Cast, and Breakthrough Performance. Voting ends Saturday, June 2nd, with the exception of Movie of the Year which will remain open until the show starts the following day.

GET VOTING HERE!

Now hurry up and vote people, before I have to get into my Aragorn speech.


Source: MTV

MTV's 5 Lessons for Catching Fire

MTV offers some sound advice for Catching Fire now that The Hunger Games is out:

DO keep the arena underwraps   

This one isn't so much for Ross as it is for the Gamemakers at Lionsgate, but we have to recognize the studio's smart decision to use only pre-Games footage in their aggressive marketing campaign for the film. In fact, I'd go so far as to say my favorite parts of the movie were from the arena, largely because they were fresh and unexpected. With the Quarter Quell's intriguing new venue, Lionsgate would be wise to build anticipation by keeping the tropical death trap shrouded in mystery. 

DON'T skimp on the CGI 

If there was a consistent complaint I heard from "Hunger Games" fans following the film's release, it was that the Girl on Fire scene — in which Katniss and Peeta introduce themselves to the Capitol, riding atop a chariot and flaunting flame-licked jumpsuits representative of their coal-mining home — was ... underwhelming. The flame effect just didn't look real enough. With a slew of new sci-fi aspects introduced in "Catching Fire," including mutated monkeys, we hope Ross can invest a bit more in the film's digital technology. 

DO capitalize on Stanley Tucci 

Say what you will about Jennifer Lawrence's gripping, gritty performance as Katniss Everdeen, but if anyone could be categorized as the film's scene-stealer, it was most certainly Stanley Tucci, whose blue-haired, big-teethed Caesar Flickerman was nothing short of mesmerizing (and a handy exposition device to boot!). Heck, I'd pay to watch a Caesar Flickerman spin-off once all three (four?) "Hunger Games" films debut. "Caesar Flickerman: Not So Blue." Think about it, Lionsgate. 

DON'T downplay the dangers of the arena 

Between her 23 fellow tributes, tracker jackers and muttations, Katniss had plenty to contend with in the arena. But, as my roommate so astutely pointed out to me long after I watched the film and didn't notice, we never really see Katniss hungry or thirsty. Limiting the violence for a PG-13 rating is an understandable edit, but why dull down the deadliness of the Games otherwise? In "Catching Fire," we need to see Katniss and her fellow tributes truly struggle, not simply limp along.

DO make artful additions (especially if they're directed by Steven Soderbergh) 

By shifting the viewpoint of the film from Katniss' first-person perspective, Ross was able to open up the world of Panem in a way we hadn't experienced before. The addition of the control room, Seneca Crane's implied death by berries and, most notably, the District 11 riot only added to the film.

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Judianna Makovsky Costuming Challenges

Another interview with Hunger Games costume designer, Judianna Makovsky!

MTV: How much did you know about "The Hunger Games" before Gary Ross came calling?
Judianna Makovsky: I had not read them, I have to admit. I hadn't even heard of them. But Gary Ross had called me, and his kids loved them, and he said, "I really want to do this movie." I was on another movie set in Shreveport, Louisiana. He said, "You have to go get it," and I said, "It's 10 o'clock at night." He said, "You have to get it first thing in the morning. You have to read it." I'm like, "OK." And then I was sending him images every day so he could start thinking. They were talking to several directors, and he really wanted to do it. It was great to start that early with him — trying to find images that were useful to him.
MTV: I have to imagine reading the series and Suzanne Collins' vivid descriptions were an evocative experience for an artist like you.
Makovsky: I have to say, I try to read everything like a fan, but I also read it as a costume designer, and I go, "Oh my god. How do you do that?" Also, I was lucky enough to have a meeting with Suzanne, and a lot of things that are in the written word do not translate well to film. Lucky for me, she understood that and knew that and said, "Do what you need to do. If you think it's not going to translate, I understand." And she was great about it.
MTV: Did you show her any of your drawings?
Makovsky: At that point, if was fairly early. We had very few. We had already done mood boards for the districts and where we wanted to go. And, yes, she was there for that and loved all of that. It was great.
MTV: What were your initial discussions with Gary Ross like?
Makovsky: The initial discussions always start with character. I would say on this movie, we started with the world that they were going to live in. Philip Messina is the production designer. I've worked with him before; we're a great team. Gary, Phil and I all sat down and just talked about what this world was going to be, and how do you have District 12 — how does that reflect in the Capitol? Because it is all the same planet, it is all the same time period. So they have to make sense together ... Before Gary got the job, we sent him all these images of coal-mining towns and all these things. He picked up some of them and just went, "This is it. This isn't a period movie, but I want the feel of these photographs." So it was basically a discussion about the world they lived in, and then we started talking about individual characters.

Read the rest of the article over at MTV

MTV's Josh Horowitz on the Black Carpet!

We've embedded 7 interviews with Josh Horowitz from MTV! We love him over here so the fact that he got Liam and Josh to talk about Mockingjay is so exciting!

(Hint: Click "Stop Countdown" after the video to avoid autoplay)

Jennifer Lawrence:

Liam Hemsworth:

More after the cut!

Gary Ross talks to Josh Horowitz of MTV: Spoilers, but LOTS of information!

Biggest challenge:

The essence of The Hunger Games:



More after the cut!

WOW! DWTC's Arianna to Co-Host Livestream of Premiere with Josh Horowitz!

This is incredible news! One of our friends over at DWTC, Arianna gets a golden opportunity! She is going to co-host the MTV livestream of the Hunger Games premiere red carpet with Josh Horowitz! Check it out:

Earlier today, MTV tweeted that it would be livestreaming the Red Carpet premiere for The Hunger Games this Monday:

Well, we are very proud to announce that our own admin, Arianna, will be co-hosting the event alongside MTV’s own Josh Horowitz!
The livestream will run from 5:30 PM PST (8:30 PM EST) through 7:30 PM PST (10:30 EST) and MTV is looking for your input! Tweet your questions for the cast using the twitter hashtag #AskHG or leave Arianna some talking points in the comments below!

Source: DWTC

Arianna, we are so happy for you!