Movie Trivia: THE HUNGER GAMES (2012)

THE HUNGER GAMES (2012)

Liam Hemsworth and Jennifer Lawrence, both natural blondes, dyed their hair brown for their roles in the film while Josh Hutcherson, naturally dark-haired, dyed his hair blond for his part. 

The name of the main character, Katniss, is derived from the name of a group of edible plant species, genus "Sagittaria", commonly known as "arrowhead". This is a reference to the character's archery skills. 

The fictional nation in the film is called Panem. This is derived from "Panem et Circenses," or "Bread and Circuses," which comes from the latter days of the Roman Empire, in which the government would keep the masses satisfied not by performing their public services well, but by providing violent and deadly entertainments for the people to watch, which is rather fitting for the subject matter of the film. 

This is not the first time actors Jennifer Lawrence and Paula Malcomson (Katniss and Mrs Everdeen) have worked together playing mother and daughter. The previous time was in Cold Case: A Dollar, a Dream in which Malcomson plays a homeless mother struggling to support her two children. 

During a New York Magazine interview, Wes Bentley said that the extremely unusual beard he wore as Seneca was styled from his own real beard, not created from applied pieces or extra hair. Bentley said that while he was in North Carolina filming the movie, he would often go to the local Target (a national department store chain) to buy things like baby formula while still sporting the "Seneca beard." 

The second movie in two years (after Winter's Bone) in which Jennifer Lawrence plays a character who feeds her destitute family and herself partly by catching and killing squirrels. 

While horsing around on the set, Jennifer Lawrence accidentally kicked Josh Hutcherson in the head, knocking him out and resulting in a concussion. 

Though she appeared in all three books, and was featured prominently in the movie, actress Elizabeth Banks's character's name, Effie Trinket, was never mentioned in the movie. 

Elizabeth Banks spent 45 minutes every day having manicures done on her fingers. 

Alexander Ludwig worked out for four hours a day with a US Navy Seal to get into shape for his role as Cato. 

Although it is mentioned briefly that Gale has had his name put into the drawing multiple times, it is not fully explained in the movie why someone might want to do this other than when Katniss tells Prim when she comes to say goodbye not to put her name in more because it's not worth getting enough food. Each additional time a name is entered raises the possibility that the person will be selected to compete, and probably die, in the games. In the source novel, it is explained that putting your name in an additional time garners your family an additional portion of grain and oil, so families experiencing especially terrible privation may put their children's names into the drawing more than once in exchange for that small amount of extra food. 

Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence have all stated that when/if the next books are converted they will come back to reprise their roles. 

Wilhelm scream can be heard from one of the victims when Katniss Everdeen cuts off a tree branch and the nest of tracker jackers fall onto some of her opponents. 

Source: IMDb