The Forced Vacation Of Illness

*cough*

*hack*

*wheeze*

*croak* Hey, wassup?

Sometimes it takes a well-timed lung plague to slap you in the face and say "YO! YOU BEEN WORKIN TOO HARD! SLEEP, DANGIT!"

Because when every breath feels like you're breathing in finely ground glass and your head feels like it weighs about 50 lbs, all those homework projects you had to finish don't seem quite so important. You know what does seem important?...Just about anything else.

And so, here I am, giving you what is apparently a bi-weekly blog update (assuming bi-weekly actually means once every other week, and not twice a week...I can never keep those straight...). But don't worry, this post won't just be all about homework and the joys of being sick. Nope, this week,  I decided to take a look at what was going on with the Hunger Games movies, as I've been a bad fangirl and failed to check on it in a while andHOLY COW I'VE BEEN NEGLECTING THE HUNGER GAMES FOR TOO LONG! Stuff happened! And I missed it! So, just in case you missed it too for some reason, I am here to fill you in. You're welcome.

And in case you've forgotten (somehow) or are new to the insanity here, The Hunger Games is a trilogy of super excellent books by Suzanne Collins about a futuristic dystopian society where the ruling capitol demands that two kids from every district take part in the annual Hunger Games: Last one standing wins. The story centers on Katniss, her co-tribute Peeta, and their attempts to survive the brutal rules of the game. Lionsgate bought the rights to the movie, Suzanne Collins is on the screenplay-writing team, Gary Ross (of Seabiscuit) is directing, and Hugh Laurie is not going to play Katniss and Peeta's drunken mentor Haymitch. Alright? Everyone's caught up now. They had been holding auditions for the main roles for a while now, but sometime between when I last checked and now, they found their Katniss, Peeta, and Gale already.

Katniss Everdeen is going to be played by Jennifer Lawrence.

Yeah, she's blonde, but seriously, Hollywood magic has dealt with more. According to an interview with Director Gary Ross, he and Collins are pretty excited about her potential to play Katniss. And while a lot of other fans are focusing on the fact that she's too old (a whopping 20) to play a 16 year old, Collins' main fear was that they would cast someone too young, which I agree with. Katniss may be 16 physically, but she's much more mature than that, and with a little movie-magic, Jen could do a pretty good job. And in case you're blanking out as to where you've seen this girl before, you might recognize her from the Bill Engvall show, or as the Oscar nominated actress from the Oscar nominated movie Winter's Bone. Yeah, I can see it. She'll also be in X-Men: First Class this summer as Mystique/Raven Darkholm. My hopes for this girl go ever higher. But what would Katniss be without her boys?


Next up: Peeta Mellark, the strong, witty baker's son that gets chosen to compete alongside Katniss. He's officially being played by Josh Hutcherson.

Who you may or may not know from such films as The Kids are Alright (Laser), Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (Steve), Journey to the Center of the Earth (Sean), The Bridge to Tarabithia (Jess), oh, and a voice in the English version of Howl's Moving Castle. Yep. That's all. (That's not actually all, that's just all I felt like listing). And if you're not convinced he'll do a great job as Peeta, check out what this quote from the thehungergamesmovie.org: "I was fortunate enough to be in the room with Gary Ross when Josh came in to audition,” said Collins, in a statement. “Three lines into the read I knew he’d be fantastic. Josh totally captured Peeta’s temperament, his sense of humor and his facility for language. I’m thrilled to have him aboard.” Well. There ya have it. 


But those of us who have read and love the books know that the dynamics between Katniss and Peeta are nothing without that added complication from Gale Hawthorne, Katniss'...friend/brother/lover/friend/person. He shall be played by Liam Hemsworth.

Yes. I can already see it. A little more hair and that's Gale all over the place! What, you need more? Ok, granted, his filmography isn't very impressive. The best known movie he was in was Knowing...and, well....ya know how well that one turned out. Unless you've heard of the The Last Song. I haven't, but he was in it, so if it was good...well there you go. But just like the previous two choices, Collins seems quite thrilled with his addition to the cast. And I say that if the author's happy, I'm happy. So there. 


Anyway, that's all I've got for now. I'm gonna go take a nap. See you next week (or perhaps the following week...) for some more average nerdiness!

A Post That Could Only Dream Of Being That Epic

I had a hard time deciding what to post about this week. There hasn't been anything too geek-tastic to give me any jolts of inspiration this week. And then a miracle occurred in the student union theater on campus, where we students get to see wonderful pre-release movies for a dollar: they're showing Scott Pilgrim vs The World!

The tagline speaks the truth

I realize that I'm late to the Scott Pilgrim party (sorry, internet!) but at least I'm attending, right? 

Anyway, it's playing all weekend, and I may or may not start classes on Monday having seen it once each day...shut up. It was great. Well, it started great, anyway. 

If you didn't already know, the movie was based off of a series of graphic novels. I did get a chance to read the books before I saw the movie, but I feel like it might have been better the other way around. Don't get me wrong, it was still an excellent movie, and "the book is always better than the movie," I just felt a little...let down, I guess. Perhaps that's largely due to the fact that they followed the first two books almost completely exactly, even most of the third one. Everything after that just kind of got lost in translation, like they said "Oh, crap, we have to start summarizing some of this or the movie's going to be like 3 hours long!" 

I have to say, though, I loved that they acknowledged the fact that they changed so much. Towards the end, the second time Scott runs into the Chaos Theater, instead of saying something about which album is better, you can hear Comeau say "...based off of them. And the comics are way better than the movie..." which made me giggle a bit. So, if you saw the movie, but haven't read the books, good! There's so much more to get now! If you read the books and haven't seen the movie, go see it! It's still a great movie. If you haven't heard of this Scott Pilgrim phenomenon, I'm just not sure what to do with you ( I mean, if I'VE heard of it, you don't have a lot of excuse, honestly). 

Finally, remember back in post number one, when I mentioned that I dabble in various dorky things, but there's always someone nerdier out there? Here's a good example: I was watching the movie last night, and had the good fortune of sharing the theater with some guy who was just too excited about it. Every joke (and there are so many of them), he'd release this odd wheezy laugh. And sure, the whole audience would laugh at the jokes, but you could ALWAYS hear this guy above everyone else. And after every battle, he'd clap and cheer, like he forgot it was just a movie and that he really just witnessed someone exploding into a bunch of coins. I mean, I enjoyed it too, but I wasn't quite that overcome with emotion at every victory. But, to each his own, I suppose....

On a separate but slightly related note (by which I mean we are still on the topic of books-turned-movies), remember the Hunger Games? Yes, I read the next two, and yes, they were everything I hoped for and more! Well, Lionsgate is officially making the movie, set to release in 2013. WOO! Why can I afford to be excited? Because Suzanne Collins, the genius behind the books, is ALSO set to do the adaptation. There's just something comforting about movies when authors do the adaptation themselves. You know the movie will catch as much of the original vision as possible, and that it will come as close as it can to showing you what the author saw when writing it. Because, you know, otherwise you get jerk-faced director/screenwriters who think THEY understand what it's all about, and, well,

this happens. 

ANYWAY, that won't happen with the hunger games. No word yet on who will play Katniss. Some rumors flying around have suggested that Twilight's Kristin Stewart play the leading lady, a suggestion that made me throw up a little. Other rumors, however, have been suggesting that they cast Kick Ass's Chloe Moretz, a suggestion I think I could approve of. Ultimately, we'll just have to wait and see, but you can bet I'll be sharing updates as they become available!

Anywho, that's all for now. Tune in next week for some more average nerdiness!