Comic-Con Day Three Recap: ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘True Blood’
Jennifer Lawrence, the Oscar-winning star of The Hunger Games, clearly works hard on her role as Katniss Everdeen, the underdog hero of the young-adult sci-fi novel and its film adaptation. Working on the film’s upcoming sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, she’s had to run a lot, wear an unwieldy wedding dress and even engage co-star Josh Hutcherson in a slobbery make-out session.
“There’s all this snot coming out of my nose, and when I go to kiss [him], it connects to his mouth,” Lawrence told a packed Hall H at Comic-Con International on Saturday, describing how they filmed a kissing scene with her and Hutcherson, who plays Peeta Mellark in the movie.
‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ Pictures
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which hits theaters on November 22nd, finds Lawrence in a new state of mind after winning the bloody Hunger Games alongside Peeta in the previous installment. Now, she’s living more comfortably but facing personal struggles.
“She’s struggling from post-traumatic stress from the games, and she kind of has a new life where she never has to worry about food anymore,” Lawrence said. “She’s living in Victor’s Village, and that kind of leaves her feeling useless in an odd way. She has to kind of adapt to this new life.”
Lawrence was on the panel with Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence and members of the cast. It was part of a Lionsgate panel that also highlighted the upcoming film I, Frankenstein, an action-horror flick starring Aaron Eckhart as a 200-year-old Frankenstein’s monster living in the modern day, along with a human scientist played by Yvonne Strahovski.
But Lawrence stole the show, regaling the audience with self-deprecating humor. To get fit for filming, she said she honed her archery skills, learned parkour techniques and even did some running training, since she runs “weird.”
Asked what her favorite part of the wardrobe was, she pointed to the luxurious wedding gown that she wears in a poster for Catching Fire released earlier this year, but added that the dress extremely difficult to wear. “It was huge. It was five feet in circumference, and I’m not good at walking,” she said, making a reference to her much-talked-about fall at the Oscars this year.
Aside from the Lionsgate panel, attendees at the filled-to-capacity hall saw previews of upcoming films from Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios. There was also a surprise announcement from director Zack Snyder that Warner Bros. will be bringing Superman and Batman together in a feature film that’s set to be released in summer 2015.
Snyder didn’t offer any details, but the “WTF”-factor was still high. Onstage, actor Harry Lennix read out an ominous statement: “I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come – in all your most private moments – I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.” Then, the room went black, and a Superman logo appeared on the big screen with a Batman logo behind it.
Later that day, in another ballroom at the San Diego Convention Center, the executive producer of True Blood revealed plans to bring the sexy HBO drama back to its “roots,” paring down storylines and focusing more on the action between humans and vampires in Bon Temps, Louisiana.
“I feel like this show is ultimately about the relationship between vampires and humans, and it’s about this town. I want to bring it in a little bit. I feel like at times we’ve hurt ourselves,” executive producer Brian Buckner said, according to USA Today. “My goal is to get all these people living under the umbrella of one story and one threat . . . and make it about this small town we’ve all come to know and love.”
The series was recently renewed for a seventh season, and it seems there’s plenty of drama to come in the remaining half of Season Six. A major character will reportedly not survive the season, and there’s likely be more hideous experiments in store for the vampires at Governor Burrell’s prison. A trailer that was screened at the panel shows vampires undergoing trials in the notorious “vamp camp.”
The cast, director and creators of How I Met Your Mother also made an appearance at Comic-Con on Saturday, revealing details about the show’s ninth and final season. The season will open with the cast heading off to the wedding for Robin and Barney, and co-creator Carter Bays said that will serve as a kind of narrative framework.
“We want to stress the word ‘framework,'” Bays said, according to Hitfix. “We don’t want to make people think that, ‘Oh, there’s four episodes of flower arranging.’ The structure of it is we’re telling the story of this wedding, but we’re going to – as we always do – flashing back, flashing forward. Decades will span over the course of this season and one weekend.”
After eight years, Bays said that viewers will finally get to see Ted Mosby with the titular Mother. Josh Radnor, who plays Ted, emphasized that fans can expect things to turn out well for his character, regardless of all the troubles he’s been through.
“It’s okay, because you know those beautiful, foul-mouthed kids are sitting on the couch at the end,” Radnor said, according to Hitfix. (The panel featured a teaser video that depicts his future kids, who’ve apparently been sitting on the couch and listening to him all these years.) “He really does get the life he’s dreaming about; just not on his timetable.”
In the final moments of the panel, a fan asked how much the cast contributes to the show’s musical numbers. Jason Segel, who co-stars as Marshall Eriksen, wrote the melody for the “Bang Bang Bangity Bang Song,” and before long, he was leading the room in a rousing sing-along.