Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth At THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE World Premiere

With less than two weeks and counting until the November 22 launch of THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, the film had it’s world premiere in London on Monday (November 11).

Fans along the red carpet caught a glimpse of Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Willow Shields along with director Francis Lawrence and producers Nina Jacobson &  Jon Kilik.

“We wanted to be every bit as ambitious with this movie as we had been with the first, and continue to take creative risks,” says returning producer Nina Jacobson. “We have tried to honor the core essence of Catching Fire in the same way that we honored The Hunger Games.”

Returning in the role is Jennifer Lawrence, whose career has soared since The Hunger Games, and who recently won the Best Actress Oscar, among other awards, playing the complicated widow Tiffany Maxwell in David O. Russell’s celebrated Silver Linings Playbook.

Lawrence loved creating the character for the first time on screen and in Catching Fire, she took the sometimes selfless, often cunning young woman she has embodied through dark, confusing times and evolved her to a new level of strength and maturity.

“Katniss remains a character I adore but the stakes are different for her this time,” Lawrence notes. “In the first movie, she was a hesitant hero who really just wanted to save her family, but now she has a bigger weight on her shoulders. She feels a responsibility to all these people who are depending on her and yet, she is struggling with that, because it isn’t at all what she signed up for.”

Just as Katniss will re-enter the Hunger Games arena and face all the questions the quest for survival raises a second time in Catching Fire, so too will Peeta Mellark, her fellow tribute, and unexpected fellow victor. Returning in the role is Josh Hutcherson, who says, “It was really exciting to experience these characters again, but in a very different kind of story and time in their lives.”

Liam Hemsworth is back as Gale, Katniss’ soul mate whom she was forced to leave behind when she volunteered for the 74th Hunger Games. Hemsworth notes that “Gale feels like he’s a bit in the dark. He’s unsure as to his place in her life now that so much has changed. At the same time, when he sees his best friend having to return to the Games again, I think it lights a fire inside him. It’s exciting for me because Gale’s whole story is becoming more complex.”

CATCHING FIRE will open around the world on the same date.  The first HUNGER GAMES film was the 13th highest-grossing North American release of all time on its way to generating nearly $700 million at the worldwide box office.

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE stars Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence alongside Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone and Jeffrey Wright, with Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland.

The film begins as Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson). Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow (Sutherland) prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games, The Quarter Quell – a competition that could change Panem forever.

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE directed by Francis Lawrence, from a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael DeBruyn, based upon the novel “Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins and produced by Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik.

Footage: Courtesy of Lionsgate

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