Jena Malone Reaped for Catching Fire and Mockingjay

This article was originally featured on Word of the Nerd Online on July 8, 2012.

Not long ago, we brought word that Jena Malone was being considered for a role as District 7 tribute Johanna Mason, a character that features prominently in both Catching Fire and Mockingjay. While several actresses were being considered for the role, among them Mia Wasikowska and model/actress Zoe Aggeliki, Entertainment Weekly reports that Lionsgate has officially offered the Sucker Punch actress Malone the part of Mason. Her career is extremely diverse, as she as appeared in Donnie Darko, Saved!, and most recently The Hatfields and McCoys mini-series on History.

 Mason is the last surviving female tributes from District 7. The year she won, which is not told in the books, she pretended to be weak and feigned hunger and fatigue in an attempt to overcome her opponents, which she did rather ruthlessly. Katniss Everdeen, protagonist of The Hunger Games and District 12 tribute, described Johanna as having a wicked ability to murder. She is cunning and sarcastic, but eventually proves to be a formidable ally to Katniss and Peeta as the series continues.

With filming set to begin in September, the time is drawing near to finish assembling the cast that will carry the rest of the series. While the novel Catching Fire provides very little in the way of character development, perhaps director Francis Lawrence has an opportunity to cast figures dynamic enough to hold their own, but not overshadow the primary cast. Weeds actor Hunter Parrish is being considered for Finnick Odair of District 4.

Francis Lawrence to Helm Catching Fire

In late breaking news, director Francis Lawrence has become Lionsgate's choice to head up Catching Fire, the highly anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games. This comes less than two weeks after Gary Ross, THG's director, made his decision not to be involved with the rest of the franchise. His decision was due to the filming schedule for Catching Fire and the high demand for the film's star Jennifer Lawrence, who will be splitting her time between filming the movie adaptation of the next installment of the Hunger Games series and the sequel to 2011's X-Men: First Class, in which she played a young Mystique. The wildly successful Hunger Games adaptation has grossed $336,666,363 as of April 15,  $152,535,747 of which is the total for the opening weekend.