We have the first official trailer for the Lionsgate adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games available for your Monday morning viewing today, thanks to MTV.com. Directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville), the fantasy stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks and Donald Sutherland. Sheena Duggal (Men in Black II) is the film’s vfx supervisor.
Set in sometime in the post-apocalyptic future in Panem or the ruins of North America, the movie tells the story of Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence), a young woman who must survive a televised fight to the death between her and teenagers from other the other districts of Panem. The heroine must rely on her instincts as well as the mentorship for drunker former victor Haymitch Abernathy to stay alive.
The Hunger Games is the first of Collins’ three very popular fantasies, which was first published by Scholastic in 2008. Budgeted for about $75 million, the movie opens on March 23, 2012. It will be facing fierce competition from Disney’s much-anticipated sci-fi thriller, John Carter, which is directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL.E).
