Jennifer Lawrence: From Winter's Bone to The Hunger Games

Recently, I sat down to watch the Oscar Best Picture-nominated film Winter's Bone on DVD. Winter's Bone has never been on my radar of movies to watch, even during the high of Oscar season. So why, you might ask, did I decide to finally watch it? The answer is because of Jennifer Lawrence, who has been cast in the role of Katniss Everdeen in next year's highly-anticipated The Hunger Games, based on the first book in the bestselling Young Adult trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

When Ms. Lawrence was first cast as Katniss, there was an uproar among fans of the book series that she was too old, too blonde, not thin enough, etc. etc. Even during Oscar season, I didn't pay any attention to her, because everyone said she had no chance at winning Best Actress. When her name popped up as the frontrunner for this role, I'm not lying when I say I had no opinion either way on if she was the right person to play Katniss. I was willing to give her a chance at this, and not make harsh judgments when we hadn't even seen any images or video clips of her in the film yet. I didn't really understand why fans were so upset by this casting decision. Somehow, they overlooked the fact that you can change a person's hair color, you can use makeup and other effects to darken skin. You can do all sorts of things to make her look like Katniss. I mean, look at the Harry Potter films or The Lord of the Rings trilogy; hair and makeup, prosthetics, and special effects can go a long way (Tom Felton? Yeah, not a natural blonde).

Then Entertainment Weekly released the first promotional photo shoot of Jennifer in full makeup and costume with brunette hair. Suddenly, the fandom breathed a big sigh of relief, and thus there was a sense of calm and order in the world again. And, by the way, I love the promo shot and immediately got excited for her to play this role.

But back to Winter's Bone now. As far as I'm aware, I have never seen her act in anything before. And since a huge part of why Jennifer was cast in The Hunger Games was because of her moving and powerful role in Winter's Bone, I felt compelled to actually watch it. Jennifer plays Ree, whose father is out on bond and has put the house and property up as his bond. If he doesn't show up for court, Ree and her family will lose the house. So Ree sets out to find him.

There is a scene where Ree's uncle grabs her by the neck/face. Here is where we see Jennifer displaying a great sense of fear and vulnerability, whereas in the scenes before that, we see her defiant and trying to act tough and strong (putting on a front, perhaps?). The character of Katniss in The Hunger Games is not this hugely tough, Lara Croft-type heroine. She does have vulnerability. She does have fear. She is human and has flaws. And Jennifer perfectly captured all of that when playing Ree. And in a scene near the end which takes place in a boat (for those who don't want to be spoiled, I won't say what actually happens in that scene), Ree is very overwrought with emotion. Jennifer's acting in these types of scenes are breathtaking to watch. She is a brilliant actress. And after watching her Oscar-nominated performance in Winter's Bone, I don't have any worries about her taking on the role of Katniss.

When a million names were flying all over the Internet on who should play Katniss Everdeen, one of the front-runners at one point was Kaya Scodelario, who played Effy Stonem in the hit British drama, Skins. I am a fan of that show and thought she should play Katniss after seeing her on that TV show. One of the reasons why other fans thought she would be perfect as well was because she is pretty thin, since Katniss is supposed to have a starved appearance over the course of the games. And many are not happy with the fact that Jennifer is not thin. I'm not sure how they will deal with this aspect, but I'm sure they'll come up with something. This is the only area where I can understand why fans would be upset.

I have faith in Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and all the filmmakers to create an excellent film that lives up to our expectations. People are saying this new movie franchise could be the next Twilight, not in terms of the story, but in terms of the anticipation, buzz, hype, and box office draw. I believe it does have a chance at that; it's already started. Harry Potter is ending next month. Twilight ends next year. We need a new Young Adult/fantasy franchise to take over, and I am confident that The Hunger Games can fill that role. And with Jennifer Lawrence as the face of these movies, we the fans should have nothing to worry about. I'm not making any judgments about any of the casting choices until I see them in their roles. And I hope others can do that as well. I'm not saying I won't make criticisms about certain elements of the movie; I'm sure I will, but for now, I'm staying out of that department. There is a reason we love the books. So let's support the filmmakers in this journey of translating the story to the big screen.

For all the latest news, rumors and filming updates, visit TV Watch Online's The Hunger Games page.

T.W.O. Show #28: Let the Games Almost Begin!

The T.W.O. Show podcast is back for episode #28 with the latest news, rumors, announcements and much more! Here's a rundown of what I discuss in the episode:

*Idol-Talk is back in the T.W.O. BLOG for season 10!
*T.W.O. Debuts The Hunger Games page
*T.W.O. BLOG: In Defense of Skins
*Regis Retiring: I choose my replacement for him.
*Even more award show nominations and winners
   -Golden Globe Winners
   -Oscar nominations
*Amazing Race: Returning teams announced
*Desperate Housewives: Ending in 2013?
*Glee: Superbowl, guest stars, and graduation
*American Idol: Top 13?, CD milestones & releases
*Grey's Anatomy
*Harry Potter: The latest Box Office numbers, DVD release info, Part 2 changes, more.
*Narnia: The latest Box Office numbers, DVD release info
*Twilight
*Hunger Games: Release Date
*Hobbit: Another setback
*My Recommendations...Or Not
   -Social Network, Catfish & more.

To download this latest episode, click HERE to visit TV Watch Online's MediaFire download page, where you can also find every episode to date.

New T.W.O. Page Devoted to The Hunger Games!

This week, the release date was announced for the upcoming film adaptation of the first book in the hugely popular young-adult series, The Hunger Games: March 23, 2012! That's just over a year from now; how exciting is that! If you have listened to the T.W.O. Show podcast, you may know that I gave a spoiler-free review of the final book, Mockingjay, back in September (Episode 18) and mentioned that I am a huge fan of this series. After reading the first book, I felt like I was reading the best book I've read since Harry Potter.

With each big news item that has come out regarding the movie version (script, director, etc), I have become more and more excited to see this on the big screen, because I believe that this story was made to be seen on the big screen. And now what may be the biggest news item to date: the release date!

I had a poll on the main page of T.W.O. asking visitors if they thought I should have a page devoted to The Hunger Games; nobody voted against the idea. I got to a point where it wasn't a matter of if, but a matter of when. And when the release date was announced, I thought this would be the perfect time to unveil it, because now, from this point on, each announcement will be upping the anticipation level even more, mainly with the casting (which we should hopefully hear about pretty soon).

Yesterday, I debuted T.W.O.'s brand-new page devoted to The Hunger Games. It is set up exactly like the other movie franchise pages (Harry Potter, Narnia, Twilight, Hobbit): logo, news article links, about the movie, poll, product links, and cover/poster images.

And The Hunger Games also now has its own page in the T.W.O. STORE.

Every time I add a new movie franchise, it may seem to you that I just put the new one below the one that came before that on the navigation bar, but there's a reasoning behind it. It all has to do with when the first movie in the franchise premiered. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 2001, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2005, Twilight in 2008. Since The Hunger Games will be coming out in early 2012, and The Hobbit will not arrive until December of that year, that is the reason why HG is above Hobbit on the navigation bar (the same order applies in the STORE).

Any related news articles before yesterday that had previously appeared in the TV/Movie/Entertainment News section on the home page has been copied over to the new film page, for convenience.

I am really looking forward to seeing the progression of filming with this movie, seeing any and all trailers, the film itself, and hopefully (fingers crossed!) two more movies as well.