Latest news with #TheHungerGames'
Perth Now
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
‘He's a contradiction!' Ben Wangs teases his Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping role
Ben Wang is 'really excited' to play Wyatt Callow in 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping'. The 25-year-old actor has been cast as the District 12 Tribute in the upcoming fantasy blockbuster, and has now teased how the character's duality will factor into the movie's story. When asked what aspects of Wyatt he was excited to explore, the 'Karate Kid: Legends' star said: 'Oh, there's so many. What really excited me about that character in the first place [is] he's not what he seems. 'I think that's part of the point of his character. He's seen by his community as one thing, but he's another thing underneath, and he's a contradiction. 'He's a logician, but he's got a really big heart, right? He's supposed to be cold and calculating, but he's actually the person who does the most illogical and selfless thing.' 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' will adapt Suzanne Collins' 2025 novel of the same name, and is the second instalment of the author's 'Hunger Games' prequel trilogy. In the book - which is set 24 years before 'The Hunger Games' on Panem - Wyatt is a Tribute from District 12, and is described as a 'compulsive oddsmaker' with a keen aptitude for arithmetic and observation, skills he leverages to assess fellow tributes and navigate the Games strategically. His analytical nature and reserved demeanour position him as a complex figure whose actions significantly influence the dynamics within the arena. Wang's Wyatt will appear alongside Joseph Zada's Haymitch Abernathy - as previously played by Woody Harrelson in the original 'Hunger Games' movies - while Whitney Peak portrays the protagonist's girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird. Meanwhile, Maya Hawke will play Wiress - the former Hunger Games champion who now serves as a mentor for those in District 12 - while Mckenna Grace has landed the highly sought-after role of District 12 Tribute Maysilee Donner. Kieran Culkin, Jesse Plemons and Kelvin Harrison Jr. have also signed on to appear in 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping', and will play Caesar Flickerman, Plutarch Heavensbee and Beetee, respectively. The most recent actor to be added to the cast of 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' is Ralph Fiennes, who will portray President Coriolanus Snow - the role previously held by the late Donald Sutherland in the original 'Hunger Games' films and Tom Blyth in the 2023 prequel 'The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes'. In a statement, producer Nina Jacobson said: 'We wanted to honour Donald Sutherland by having one of this generation's greatest actors play President Snow 24 years before Katniss Everdeen entered the arena. 'Working with Ralph has been on my bucket list since he traumatised me for life in 'Schindler's List'. It's genuinely a thrill to welcome him to the Hunger Games.' 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' - which will be directed by Francis Lawrence - is slated to hit screens in November 2026.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jennifer Lawrence's advice to aspiring actors? Have kids
This week, actress Jennifer Lawrence promoted her new film — and motherhood. Two months after giving birth, Lawrence was at the Cannes Film Festival to discuss 'Die, My Love.' 'The Hunger Games' star plays a young mother in the movie, which she stars in alongside Robert Pattinson. In real life, Lawrence shares two children with husband Cooke Maroney including a 3-year-old son named Cy, according to People. At a festival press conference on Sunday, Lawrence was asked how motherhood had impacted her perspective on her career and life. 'Having children changes everything. It changes your whole life. It's brutal and incredible,' she said. Lawrence said she takes her children into account when deciding 'if I'm working, where I'm working, when I'm working.' She added that motherhood has made her a better actor. 'I didn't know I could feel so much, and my job has a lot to do with emotion and they've opened up the world to me. It's almost like feeling like a blister, something like so sensitive. So, they've changed my life, obviously, for the best, and they've changed me creatively,' she said. Lawrence then shared some advice for aspiring actors. 'I highly recommend having kids if you want to be an actor,' she said. Lawrence's costar, Pattinson, was also asked to weigh in on parenthood after Lawrence. He and his partner Suki Waterhouse welcomed a baby girl last spring. Pattinson praised the creative benefits that came along with becoming a parent. 'I think in the most unexpected way having a baby gives you the biggest trove of energy and inspiration afterwards,' he said. But Lawrence wasn't quite sold on his answer and interjected with a question of her own. 'You get energy from having kids?' she asked. He laughed and clarified that 'it's a different kind of energy.' He then playfully lamented that the question was impossible for a man to answer correctly, drawing laughs from his costars and the audience. 'It's literally — I'm just like, 'What Jennifer said.' I'm here to support," he said.
The Journal
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Journal
First-time buyers facing 'out of control' housing market like 'The Hunger Games', says TD
SOCIAL DEMOCRATS TD Rory Hearne has likened the 'out of control' housing market to 'The Hunger Games' such is the fierce competition for homes. The Dublin North-West deputy said that first time buyers face 'absolutely unaffordable prices', further questioning the transparency of the costs around trying to buy a house. 'It's like the hunger games out there in terms of housing. I'm not using that in any facetious way. I'm saying this is the reality,' he told reporters. Hearne that there was an issue around the 'gazumping' of buyers when they are informed that they have been outbid, causing the price of a home to shoot up further. 'Queues for renting, queues to try and buy, people being outbid, and for housing the issue of gazumping is still going on,' Hearne said. 'There are real issues around the opaqueness in terms of housing purchasing, and it is those first time buyers, people trying to buy a home, who are suffering, who are being made to pay absolutely unaffordable prices. Advertisement He said this has reached a point where this is 'not unusual' and placed blame at the government which he said has 'not got to grips with' the system. Hearne, who penned a 2022 book about the housing crisis called Gaffs before he was elected to the Dáil, is a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage which will have its first meeting today. First up on the agenda is local councils and their role in delivering housing. The City and County Managers Association – which represents local authority chiefs – will tell the Oireachtas Committee on Housing about the impediments that need addressing so councils can build more housing units. The group will outline while local authorities have delivered 24,000 social housing units since 2022, Government ambitions to increase this to 12,000 units per annum are 'simply not feasible without urgent structural support.' TDs will be told that there is a need for investment funding, coordinated servicing of land by state bodies and increased staffing for councils to help meet the 12,000 target. It is to hear that local authorities have delivered 24,000 social housing units since 2022, but that Government plans to increase this to 12,000 units per annum are 'simply not feasible without urgent structural support.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Scoop
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Celluloid Exploitation: Immigrants And Reality Television
Shocking it might be, yet still part of an old pattern. The US Department of Homeland Security is floating the idea of using a reality television program to select immigrants vying for US citizenship. Whether this involves gladiatorial combat or inane pillow battles remains to be seen, though it is bound to involve airhead celebrity hosts and a set of fabricated challenges. What matters is the premise: the reduction of a government agency's functions to a debauched spectacle of deceit, desperation and televisual pornography. Much, in some ways, like the Trump administration itself. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, television producer Rob Worsoff, the man behind the Duck Dynasty reality show, comes clean in his monstrous intentions behind this proposed series he hopes to call The American: he has been pursuing this seedy project since the days of the Obama administration, hoping for some amoral stakeholder to bite. Worsoff, in true fashion, denies that such a project is intended as malicious ('this isn't the 'The Hunger Games' for immigrants'), let alone denigrating the dignity of human worth. In the grand idea of full bloom, optimistic America, it is intended as hopeful, but most of all, competitive. Forget equal protection and a fair evaluation of merits; here is a chance for Social Darwinism to excel. Worsoff insists he is free of political ideology. 'As an immigrant myself, I am merely trying to make a show that celebrates the immigration process, celebrate what it means to be American and have a national conversation about what it means to be American, through the eyes of people who want it most'. He proposes to do this by, for instance, sending immigrants to San Francisco where they find themselves in a mine to retrieve gold. Another would see the contestants journey to Detroit, where they will be placed on an auto assembly to reassemble a Model-T Ford chassis. The winners would end up on the Capitol steps, presumably to receive their citizenship in some staged ceremony for television. The losing contestants would go home with such generous prizes as a Starbucks gift card or airline points. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has apparently spoken to Worsoff on this steaming drivel, with the producer describing the response as 'positive'. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, it is said, has not officially ''backed' or even reviewed the pitch of any scripted or reality show. The Department of Homeland Security receives hundreds of television show pitches a year.' The mind can only dissipate in despair at such an observation, unsurprising in a land where the television, or televisual platforms, remain brain numbing instructors. That the DHS is considering this is unremarkable. The department has already participated in television projects and networks, To Catch a Smuggler being a case in point. Noem has also made much of the camera when it comes to dealing with immigrants. An ad campaign costing US$200 million promises to feature her admonishing illegal immigrants to return to their countries. No doubt the hairdressing and makeup department will be busy when tarting her up for the noble task. Broadcasters in a number of countries have also found the unsuspecting migrant or foreign guest captured by television irresistible viewing. It's not just good, couch potato fun, but also a chance to fan prejudice and feed sketchy stereotypes. The reality TV show Border Security, which first aired on Australia's free-to-air Channel 7 in 2004, proved to be a pioneering model in this regard. Not only did it provide a chance to mock the eating habits of new arrivals as food stuffs were confiscated by customs officers with names like 'Barbs', the program could also impute an intention to attack the Australian agricultural sector with introduced pests and diseases. These depictions went hand in hand with the demonising strategy of the Australian government towards unwanted asylum seekers and refugees ('Stop the Boats!' was the cry), characterised by lengthy spells of detention in an offshore tropical gulag. The plight of the vulnerable immigrant has also become a matter of pantomime substitution, an idea supposedly educative in function. Why not act out the entire migrant experience with reality television individuals with particularly xenophobic views? In February, this is exactly what took place in a reality television show vulgarly titled Go Back to Where You Come From aired on the UK's Channel 4, running four episodes where selected, largely anti-immigration participants, according to Channel 4, 'experience some of the most perilous parts of the refugee journeys'. It comes as little surprise that the series is modelled on an Australian precursor made in the early 2010s. Even pro-immigrant groups were reduced to a state of admiring stupor, with the Refugee Council, a British charity, praising the worth of such shows to 'have huge potential to highlight the stories behind the headlines'. Gareth Benest, advocacy director at the International Broadcasting Trust charity, also thought it instructive that the participants 'face the reality of irregular migration and to challenge their preconceptions.' French politician Xavier Bertrand failed to identify similar points, calling the program 'nauseating'. In his attack on the experiment, he saw the deaths across the English Channel as 'a humanitarian tragedy, not the subject of a game'. But a game it has become, at least when placed before the camera.
Daily Tribune
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Tribune
US considering reality TV competition for citizenship
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering taking part in a reality TV show in which immigrants would compete for American citizenship, the department confirmed on Friday. Asked about the reported idea, DHS responded with a statement that said the pitch 'has not received approval or rejection by staff,' and that 'each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval.' 'We need to revive patriotism and civic duty in this country, and we're happy to review outof-the-box pitches,' Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement. The Wall Street Journal reported that the proposed show -- which was pitched by a Canadian American named Rob Worsoff -- would see contestants face off to prove they are the most American. 'This isn't 'The Hunger Games' for immigrants,' the newspaper quoted Worsoff as saying -- a reference to a dystopian novel and subsequent movie about children forced to kill each other in a televised competition for survival. 'This is not, 'Hey, if you lose, we are shipping you out on a boat out of the country,'' he said. The Journal reviewed a 36- page slide deck from Worsoff's team about the proposed program, which would see contestants compete in one-hour episodes. This could include a gold rush competition to see who can retrieve the most precious metal from a mine, or one in which contestants would work in teams to assemble the chassis of a Model T car, according to the newspaper. The show would start with an arrival at Ellis Island -- the traditional entrance point for immigrants to the United States -- and would see one contestant eliminated per episode.
