Los Angeles, U.S.A. — After more than 2.4 million votes were cast internationally, ‘Hunger Games’ humble yet fierce Jennifer Lawrence took the number one position on AskMen’s “Top 99 Most Desirable Women” list. In the poll, which surveyed AskMen readers, Lawrence shot up ahead of her Hollywood peers, including Kristen Stewart (No. 7), Jessica Biel (No. 24), Charlize Theron (No.97) and reality TV star Kim Kardashian, who dropped from No. 8 on last year’s list to No. 98 this year.

The 12th edition of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women poll, calls on AskMen readers to elect women who most closely match their ideals. These men were tasked with voting on more than just sex appeal, taking into account character, intelligence, talent, sense of humor, professional success, achievements in 2012 and potential for 2013.

Lawrence’s victory follows an incredible 2012 for the 22-year-old starlet, whose breakout performances in ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘Silver Lining Playbook’ turned the heads of men worldwide and pinned her as the next big thing. Lawrence is followed by ‘TED’ actress Mila Kunis, who has consistently appeared on AskMen’s Top 99 since 2008 a Sports Illustrated turned Vogue model Kate Upton stayed high up on the list, landing at No. 3, dropping only one spot from the 11th edition of the list.

With more than 40% of the women on the list appearing for the first time, it’s fair to say there is a new breed of strong and independent women taking over. Take Lawrence’s No. 1 ranking after her fearless roles, or Claire Danes, who earned an Emmy this year for her standout performance on Homeland, at No. 20. Anne Hathaway shaved her head for her dramatic role in ‘Les Miserables’ and came in at No. 47. Other powerful women on the list include Marissa Mayer, President and CEO of Yahoo, at No. 59, First Lady Michelle Obama at No. 33 and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Russian activist-punk group Pussy Riotat No. 85.

James Bassil , Editor-In-Chief of AskMen, commented, “The top-rated women on AskMen’s 12th edition of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women list speaks to men’s growing comfort with strong and independent partners. While undeniably successful candidates like Marissa Mayer have rocketed up the list, the more ambiguous “career” women — like Kim Kardashian – have plummeted on it.”

The “Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2013″ features a new generation of leading women:

• “Girls” actresses Jemima Kirke (No. 51) and Allison Williams (No. 42), “Mad Men” actress Jessica Pare at No. 9, Beyonce’s sister, singer Solange Knowles, at No. 50, Australian Youth Olympian Michelle Jenneke at No. 10 and newlywed U.S. soccer team goalie Hope Solo at No. 30.
• Music icons have historically pushed boundaries on what’s considered desirable, and this year is no different, with American Idol judge Nicki Minaj dropping off the list and making way for newbies Azealia Banks (No. 49) and “Call Me Maybe” singer Carly Rae Jepsen at No. 75.

For a third year in a row, TV actresses dominated the list, with 24 TV stars claiming spots. “Modern Family’s” Sofia Vergara topped last year’s list, and she continued to hold strong at No. 12 this year. Has dating bad boy Kanye West hurt Kim Kardashian ’s image? The reality tv star dropped to No. 98 on this year’s list. Perhaps not, as “bad girl” Kristen Stewart ’s public infidelity had no impact on her desirability, which resulted in a climb from No. 27 last year to No. 7 this year. Likewise, Scarlett Johansson fell from No. 7 to No. 45. Will her upcoming sultry performance in ‘A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ on Broadway restore her sex appeal?

Votes for the 12th annual list also prove that men are loving women over 40, including Vergara (No. 12), Sarah Silverman (No. 23), Lucy Liu; (No. 69) and Rachel Weisz (No 72). First Lady, Michelle Obama , at age 48, is the oldest woman featured on this list, at No. 33.

For exclusive videos, photos and comments from this year’s honorees, visit www.askmen.com. Up-to-date coverage of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women can also be found on AskMen’s Facebook and Twitter.

Here is what some of the Top 99 women had to say
“Thank you Ask Men for choosing me this year! It’s such an honor and I hope I can continue being park of the AskMen family!” – Jessica Gomes, No. 8

“I love AskMen.com. Thank you for including me amongst these incredible women. Honored!” – Candice Swanepoel, No. 11

“I am hugely flattered to have been voted on to the AskMen Top 99 Most Desirable Women list. Please pass on a sincere thank you to all the readers who voted for me.”- Emilia Clarke, No. 15

“Being on the Top 99 list of askmen.com is extremely flattering! Thank you xx” - Chanel Iman, No.26

“Thank you Askmen.com! It is so amazing to be on your Most Desirable list!”- Olivia Culpo, No.36

“I am honored. I will adore this moment because I fear this title will drop next year because it’s hard to look amazing in bobsled with snot running down your nose” – Lolo Jones, No.41

Image Courtesy : Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

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Santa Monica, U.S.A. — IMAX Corporation and Lionsgate, a leading diversified global entertainment company, announced that ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’, the second film in the wildly popular franchise, will be released in the immersive IMAX format.

The first Hunger Games film just crossed the $400 million mark at the North American box office, making it the 14th highest-grossing film of all time. The film has grossed nearly $650 million worldwide, with a rollout in China (including 67 IMAX screens) later this month.

Helping to further eventize this cultural phenomenon and transport moviegoers into the world of Panem, director Francis Lawrence will utilize IMAX cameras in filming portions of ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’. Exclusively in IMAX theatres, sequences shot with the extremely high-resolution cameras will expand to fill the entire screen with unprecedented crispness and clarity, putting moviegoers right into the action alongside Katniss and her fellow Tributes. Leading the cast is Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, reprising her role as Katniss Everdeen, along with fellow returning cast members Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne and Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark.

“We are thrilled to continue the productive partnership we enjoyed with IMAX on the first installment of ‘The Hunger Games’,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-Chairs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger. “Our partnership on the first Hunger Games film was a resounding success, and we look forward to building on that experience with an expanded IMAX relationship on Catching Fire. IMAX delivers a unique and memorable experience that is the perfect way to celebrate this special moviegoing event.”

“Beyond the global phenomenon that was ‘The Hunger Games’, the film resonated exceptionally with IMAX fans, resulting in sell outs across the network during the limited IMAX run,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President, IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “We are excited to expand our partnership with directorFrancis Lawrence, producers Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik and the Lionsgate team as Catching Fire joins a select group of blockbuster titles that have filmed with IMAX cameras, elevating the property to the next level.”

The IMAX release of ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience with proprietary IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX’s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is based on the second book in Suzanne Collins’ bestselling series. It chronicles the life of Katniss Everdeen after she emerges from the 74th Annual Hunger Games victorious — but far from safe. Even as she becomes an unwitting symbol of the rebellion mounting in the districts, Katniss never loses sight of her commitment to protect her family. ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ will be directed by Francis Lawrence, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producerJon Kilik. The novel on which the film is based is the second in a trilogy that has over 36 million copies in print in the U.S. alone.

Image Courtesy of The Hunger Games

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Beverly Hills, U.S.A. - Global box office smash “Hunger Games” will be exclusively available for Netflix members to watch instantly on August 18 in Latin America and Brazil as part of a multi-year deal between Netflix and Telefilms, the region’s leading distributor of independent films.

Through Telefilms, a broad selection of new hit films will be coming to Netflix, many of them as early as four months after their theatrical premiere, starting with Academy Award Best Picture winner “The Artist” on June 15 and including “Shame” the critically-acclaimed Steve McQueen film with Michael Fassbenderand Carey Mulligan, horror-thriller “The Chernobyl Diaries” and the new Woody Allen film “To Rome with Love” featuring Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page.

Other highly anticipated new movies coming to Netflix from Telefilms are “Ender’s Game,” a science-fiction thriller with Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley and Abigail Breslin and supernatural mystery, “Beautiful Creatures” with Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons and Emmy Rossum.

Netflix now has more than one million Netflix members in Latin America, and Latin Americans have enjoyed over 100 million hours of Hollywood, local and international movies and TV shows from Netflix.  In the nine months Netflix has been offering its Latin American service, it has more than doubled its content selection, and increased availability to include a wide range of devices including the Xbox, Apple TV, iPad and other tablets and new Smart TVs from Samsung, LG and Sony, among others.

“We are excited to now have such a fantastic flow of commercially successful and critically-acclaimed films for our members in the region,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer. “Telefilms has great taste and a great track record that now extends over 50 years and we are proud to be working with such a distinguished and successful company.

“We are pleased and honored to be part of this strategic alliance with the #1 player in content streaming,” said Telefilms president Tomas Darcyl. “By choosing to work with Telefilms, Netflix is providing Latin American consumers the most appealing and prestigious films available.”

In addition to new movies, Netflix will also be making available for its members to watch instantly such critically acclaimed Telefilms titles like “The King’s Speech,” “Midnight in Paris” and “Biutiful” as well as crowd-pleasers  such as “Million Dollar Baby,” “The Fifth Element” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

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California, U.S.A. – Lionsgate a leading diversified global entertainment company, announced that The Hunger Games, which has already grossed nearly $620 million at the worldwide box office, has been approved for release in China in the first half of June.

The film will be released nationwide in China with both dubbed and subtitled prints by The China Film Group in conjunction with Lionsgate’s promotional partner, Talent International.  The Hunger Games will be one of the first Hollywood studio films to be released in China under the new blockbuster revenue sharing agreement announced in February that allows Western distributors to collect up to 25% of a film’s receipts in China.

“The Hunger Games juggernaut continues to gain momentum around the world, and we’re thrilled that we can now share the exciting first installment of THE HUNGER GAMES franchise with Chinese moviegoers in June,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-Chairs Patrick Wachsberger and Rob Friedman.  “China is already one of the leading territories at the international box office, and the launch of The Hunger Games in this key market is another sign of the franchise’s continuing emergence as a truly global phenomenon.”

The Hunger Games has already grossed more than $380 million at the North American box office where it ranks 13th among the highest-grossing films of all time.  It has grossed nearly $620 million worldwide with upcoming launches in China and Japan.

“We view China as an increasingly important market for our content in Asia,” said Wendy Reeds, Executive Vice President of Content Sales & Distribution for Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE), Lionsgate’s venture with Saban Capital Group and Astro’s Celestial Pictures in Asia.  “The Chinese box office grew by more than 30% last year to over $2 billion, and The Hunger Games’ approval for nationwide release in China is a major step in translating the enormous commercial potential of this huge market into reality.”

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Fans of Suzanne Collins’ ‘The Hunger Games’ are flocking to cinemas these days to root for Jennifer Lawrence’s heroine Katniss Everdeen. When her sister is chosen as Tribute, she volunteers to compete in the life-or-death show.

Once the Hunger Games get underway, Katniss must take the measure of her fellow Tributes, any one of whom could cause her demise. The casting of the two dozen Tributes was a major undertaking. “In the book, each Tribute has his or her own very specific social ranking and physical description, so we were very selective and cast them one at a time,” explains producer Jon Kilik.

“Our casting director, Debbie Zane, is just amazing at finding the most talented people from ages 12 to 18. She cast a wide net and was incredibly diligent. She and Gary worked patiently and very hard until we put the whole group together.”

The most fearsomely dangerous of the competitors are the so-called “Career Tributes,” who have been groomed and physically trained for the Games since the day they were born. Especially worrisome to Katniss are the four most favored Careers: Clove played by Isabelle Fuhrman, Cato played by Alexander Ludwig, Glimmer played by Leven Rambin and Marvel played by Jack Quaid. Each brings his or her own special skill.

“Clove has a lot more brains than a lot of the Tributes,” says Fuhrman, who recently came to the fore in the horror movie ‘Orphan’. “The interesting thing is that she looks very girly and frilly, but she also a very dark side to her.”

Adds Ludwig, best known for his role in ‘Race to Witch Mountain’: “Cato is someone who is very strong, physically and mentally, and is ruthless, but I think deep, deep down there was a good person inside him before he went into these Games.”

For Rambin, seen in roles on “One Tree Hill,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI: Miami,” the key to Glimmer was going at everything 110%. “Glimmer considers the Games an honor,” she notes. “She enjoys the fame, and because of that she can be a great threat.”

Quaid, who makes his feature film debut in ‘The Hunger Games’, says of Marvel: “I wouldn’t say he’s the sharpest tool in the shed, but he is ecstatic to be there and he just goes for it.”

Among the more ordinary Tributes who are just as terrified and overwhelmed as Katniss, two immediately draw her respect: little Rue, who was reaped for the Games at the tender age of 12; and the quick and clever Foxface. A pair of rising newcomers takes on the roles: Amandla Stenberg as Rue and Jacqueline Emerson as Foxface.

Stenberg went all out for the part, rolling in dirt outside before auditioning for Ross at his home. “I had leaves in my hair and everything,” Stenberg recalls. “Gary has a really nice house, and I didn’t want to sit on anything and get it dirty, so I found a little stool to sit on. I was really nervous.”

Anxious as she was, it was clear she had a deep affinity for Rue, who becomes Katniss’ ally. “I’d read the book four times and I just loved Rue because she’s so smart and agile and yet sweet,” says Stenberg. “I think when Katniss sees Rue, she thinks of her sister and that’s why she loves her.”

On the set, Stenberg also developed a tight-knit, best-friends relationship with Lawrence that further added to their roles. “They bonded in a real big sister/little sister way, which was fantastic for the movie,” says Ross. “Sometimes they were laughing so much I had to tell them to knock it off but it truly mirrored the closeness that Katniss and Rue have.”

One of Suzanne Collins’ favorite scenes is Rue’s final sequence, which Collins witnessed on set. “The scene’s so key, not only because of its emotional impact on Katniss — Rue’s essentially become Prim’s surrogate in the arena — but because it has to be powerful enough to trigger the first rumblings of the rebellion,” notes the author.

“It’s very demanding for the actors. All three of the kids — Jen, Amandla and Jack — gave terrific performances. T Bone Burnett came up with this lovely, haunting melody for the lullaby. And Gary, who was masterminding the whole thing, filmed it beautifully. There’s this one shot of Katniss cradling Rue in the periwinkle with the lush background of the forest.

On the monitor it looked like an exquisite portrait, like something you’d frame and hang in a museum. I remember Amandla came and sat next to me between takes and asked me, ‘So, what did you imagine it would be like?’ And I said, ‘Like that.’ But really, it exceeded my expectations.”

Rue’s co-Tribute, Thresh, played by Nigerian newcomer Dayo Okeniyi, tries to watch out for her. “Thresh is your basic, hard-working guy from the farming district who loves his family and just wants to see them again. For him, Rue is like a baby sister,” says Okeniyi.  “He wants to protect her, but he knows a time may come when he will have to make a decision between his life or her life. In his heart, there’s a constant tug-of-war.”

Emerson was equally taken with Foxface. “I love that she’s the smartest Tribute and that’s the way she makes her way through the Games,” she observes. “Her whole strategy is to evade capture. She’s always two steps ahead of the game, thinking of the one thing nobody else could.”

Yet within all the physical drama, Emerson says that Ross always kept the cast focused on the inner experience of their characters. “The great thing about Gary directing ‘The Hunger Games’ is that he set out to find the heart of this story,” summarizes Emerson. “It’s not just a flashy action movie. It’s about people and ideas you’ll walk out of the theatre thinking about for a long time.”

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Director Gary Ross first witnessed the impact of ‘The Hunger Games’ and Katniss Everdeen on his own children. “I’d heard people raving about ‘The Hunger Games’ and when I asked my kids about it, they kind of exploded and started going on and on until I had to stop them from telling me the whole story,” he recalls. “Their enthusiasm was so infectious, I went upstairs, started reading, and by 1:30 a.m., I said ‘I have to make this movie.’ It was that impulsive.”

Right away, Ross had an unwavering vision of what lay at the heart of The Hunger Games’ appeal. “My mind was clear from the beginning,” he says. “I saw there was something really beautiful happening underneath the story. It’s obviously a viscerally exciting tale of survival within a lurid spectacle of the future.

But I think what really compels people to pass the book from one person to the next is that it is at bottom about one girl, Katniss Everdeen, finding her own humanity. She begins as someone who only wants to fight for herself, for her personal survival – yet what she finds in the course of the Games is something more important than even staying alive. Her heart opens and she becomes someone who’s willing to sacrifice for something bigger. “

He continues: “The essential thing is that you are in Katniss’ shoes. In ‘Seabiscuit’, I wanted to viscerally put the audience on the racetrack. In ‘The Hunger Games’, the audience has to be in Katniss’ head. You know what she knows. You don’t know more. You’re in this experience 100% with her. To that end, the film required a very subjective style. It had to be urgent, immediate and tightly in with Katniss the whole time.”

His desire to bring Katniss’ quest for survival and something more to life might have been instantaneous but Ross has a long history of bringing imaginatively detailed and never-before-seen worlds to life on screen.

It began with his Academy Award-nominated screenplay for ‘Big’ about a child transformed into a man; evolved with his directorial debut ‘Pleasantville’, which he also wrote, about two teens transported into a 1950s sitcom; and continued with ‘Seabiscuit’, which he wrote, produced and directed, taking audiences into the fabric of the Great Depression through the unlikely story of an underdog racehorse.

Ross was now ready to tackle creating Panem – entirely as it would be viewed by Katniss as she travels from her remote, hardscrabble District to the eye-popping Capitol, and into the unforgiving forest where the Games begin, her perspective broadening at every step.

He began by going directly to the source, inviting Suzanne Collins to collaborate on the adaptation, and to bring all her deep insight into the Games and Katniss’ vital inner life with her. “It wasn’t just that Suzanne was involved. We became a writing team,” states Ross. “It was a fantastic, electric partnership. To know that you are writing a film not only supported by the author but with her input is a real gift.”

Suzanne Collins understood that the film would necessarily be its own experience, no matter how faithful to the book’s essence. “When you’re adapting a novel into a two-hour movie you can’t bring everything with you,” she notes. “Not all the characters are going to make it to the screen.

For example, we gave up Madge, cut the Avox girl’s backstory, and reduced the Career pack. It was hard to let them go but I don’t think that the choices damaged the emotional arc of the story. Then there was the question of how best to take a book told in the first person and transform it into a satisfying dramatic experience. In the novel, you never leave Katniss for a second and are privy to all of her thoughts. We needed to find ways to dramatize her inner world.”

As Ross and Collins worked through these challenges – as well as the question of how to present the violence that is so much a part of what Katniss faces in an appropriate yet impactful way for a PG-13 audience – they came to admire each other’s creativity. “Gary was a complete pleasure to work with,” sums up Collins. “Amazingly talented, collaborative and always respectful of the book.”

For Ross, the screen adaptation had to start with the world that has made Katniss who she is: Panem, a dystopian future realm which owes a debt to classic sci-fi influences from George Orwell to Margaret Atwood, yet that Collins made specific to both a 16-year-old’s view-point and our current moment in American culture.

“The back story of Panem that has to be alluded to is that a variety of forces — global warming, scarcity of resources, lengthy wars, all these things – ripped away at what used to be American culture and culminated in a very oppressive state. When the districts rebelled, the Capitol instituted the Hunger Games as a means of control, to keep the people in line,” explains Ross.

Both Ross and Collins wanted to highlight the way the Games amplify today’s obsession with reality television into something that puts Katniss and her fellow Tributes in mortal danger. As sinister and despised as the Games are, people across Panem nevertheless get caught up in them because they yearn to see someone they relate to triumph and have his or her life transformed.

“The Games are like a Roman spectacle but they’re also a lot like the reality TV we see right now,” comments Ross. “People are riveted by the Games because we all have this need to root for someone to make it. When President Snow says ‘the only thing stronger than fear is hope’ it’s because he knows hope is what gets people so involved in the contest.

It’s one of the brilliant things that Suzanne does in the book – she shows how the best way to control people is not to subjugate them but to get them to participate. That’s how the Capitol uses the Games to control the districts.”

Ross also began to envision the physical architecture of the Capitol, which he knew had to radiate authority to Katniss but also reveal the cynical decadence of those who would prosper while she and others struggle. He and Collins agreed the city should be rooted in history, not fantasy, even as it nearly overwhelms Katniss in the beginning.

“We wanted the Capitol to give off a sense of its past,” he explains. “If you look at any seat of power — from the Brandenburg Gate to Red Square — it’s open space punctuated by buildings of tremendous mass.  That was our idea behind it. To Katniss, it all evokes a sense of might and power.”

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Welcome to the intense reality of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who must try to survive – by sheer wits and will alone – a future world that is at once high-tech and apocalyptic, glitzy and primal, unsettlingly dangerous and a telltale mirror to our own.

Unfolding entirely through Katniss’ intimately personal POV, ‘The Hunger Games’ reveals how this miner’s daughter from a dark future transforms from a mere pawn in a lethal televised contest to a soulful, sacrificing heroine who comes to realize that she has even more to protect and fight for than her own family.

Few who have encountered Katniss have been able to resist the visceral excitement of watching her find her strength, resolve and heart while under the most extreme pressure a teenager could imagine. This was certainly true for the production executives at Lionsgate Entertainment. For them, Katniss’ journey jumped off the pages of Suzanne Collins’ literary sensation ‘The Hunger Games’ with such beauty and force, they felt instantly it deserved to be captured on screen.

When producer Nina Jacobson had bought the rights to the novel in 2009, ‘The Hunger Games’ was just beginning to find a devoted audience. Jacobson brought it to Lionsgate’s film executives Joe Drake and Alli Shearmur, among other studio executives, and they instantly became obsessed with Katniss and her journey.

It was only as development began that the popularity of the books swelled in tandem with anticipation of the movie. Millions began to wonder how a filmmaker might bring to life Collins’ fresh twist on a sinister future and – most of all – bring to life the complicated but gutsy heroine who made the book’s adventure feel so harrowingly true.

Ultimately, Lionsgate and Jacobson put together a team, headed by visually bold director Gary Ross, that was equally compelled by Katniss’ arc and how her evolution as a human being touched millions of readers. The idea behind the screen adaptation was to visually get inside Katniss’ head, and ultimately her heart, the same way that Collins had done in words.

In that way, the film would not only capture Katniss’ battles with her fellow Tributes in the Games, but would also mine the rich themes Collins had explored through Katniss’ life-changing experience: personal sacrifice, star-crossed love and the question of where our current society might be headed.

Katniss’ world was initially inspired, Collins says, by her fascination with the ancient Greek myth of Theseus – who every nine years sent a phalanx of young boys and girls into a deadly labyrinth to fight the monstrous Minotaur. It was equally influenced by her experiences channel-surfing through an unsettling blur of reality TV and war coverage, wondering what this mix of entertainment and true-life terror boded for the future of society.

Together, these two ideas added up to the birth of Katniss Everdeen – who enters a violent and mythic future from a perspective unlike any other. Her adventure in the Capitol of Panem, once she takes her sister’s place in the Games, might have the breathless pace of a sci-fi thriller, but it is at heart about a girl coming to grips with the moral dilemmas of power, injustice and self-preservation at the same time in life as she is also discovering love, independence and her own identity.

A former children’s TV writer and a mother of two, Collins found a way to make Katniss’ world feel so deeply personal that readers couldn’t help but imagine how they would feel in her place – as she is first driven to save her sister, her family and herself, but then begins to see the glimmer of a chance to make a difference for others across the shadowy landscape of Panem.

Collins was not afraid to take Katniss into risky terrain, because she knew teens were already grappling with these questions in the world around them.  In her book proposal for the series, Collins wrote: “Although set in the future, ‘The Hunger Games’ explores disturbing issues of modern warfare such as who fights our wars, how they are orchestrated, and the ever-increasing opportunities to observe them being played out.”

Yet she also balanced that with Katniss’ growth and evolution into someone as courageous and principled as she is stubbornly tenacious.  She noted that Katniss, though initially “distrustful,” takes from this adventure “a deep capacity to love and sacrifice for those few people she cares for.”

The success of ‘The Hunger Games’ hinged on readers identifying with Katniss — and that is exactly what happened. The book was soon being passed from hand-to-hand, reader-to-reader, developing a devoted following that flowed into the culture at large.

Author Stephen King dubbed Katniss a “bow-and-arrow Annie Oakley,” The Atlantic Monthly called her “the most important female character in recent pop cultural history” and The New York Times praised Collins’ “convincingly detailed world-building and her memorably complex and fascinating heroine.”

Stephanie Myer, author of the ‘Twilight’ series, blogged:  “The story kept me up for several nights in a row, because even after I was finished, I just lay in bed wide awake thinking about it.”

Once word began to get out about the books and the impending movie, their popularity began to spread like wildfire. When the film went into production, there were about 8 million copies of the novels in circulation; by the time production wrapped there were 12 million and now the number has exploded to over 26 million.

The first novel has since spent more than 180 consecutive weeks and more than three consecutive years to date on The New York Times bestseller list. Collins went on to write two more best-selling books in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, which established Panem as a realm that has taken up permanent residence in the popular imagination.

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Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her younger sister’s place to enter the games, and is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy when she’s pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

‘The Hunger Games’ is directed by Gary Ross, with a screenplay by Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, the first in a trilogy published by Scholastic that has over 26 million copies in print in the United States alone, has developed a massive global following.

It has spent more than 180 consecutive weeks/more than three consecutive years to date on The New York Times bestseller list since its publication in September 2008, and has also appeared consistently on USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.

The adapted story

In the ruins of the land formerly known as North America, the annual Hunger Games are about to get under way – and 16-year-old contender Katniss Everdeen has only the remotest chance of beating the fearsome odds. Like most of the nation of Panem, Katniss lives in one of twelve enslaved districts, ruled over by a mystery-shrouded Capitol, which after decades of chaos and war, now suppresses the people under the thumb of a harsh yet decadent dictatorship.

Every year, on Reaping Day, each of the districts must choose, by lottery or volunteer, one boy and one girl to represent them in the Capitol’s twisted idea of grand entertainment that proves its total control, while also giving the famished populace the faintest ray of hope to hang onto.

These are the Hunger Games — an intense gladiatorial competition between 24 adolescent warriors known as Tributes, broadcast live on TV until only one survivor remains . . . and once Katniss is entered there is no turning back.

On this day, in District 12, the unthinkable happens – Katniss’ little sister, Primrose, whom Katniss has helped to feed and care for much of her life, is chosen for the Games. In a brave, self-sacrificing move that she knows might seal her fate, Katniss volunteers to take her sister’s place.

Instantly, she and her new co-Tribute, the baker’s son Peeta Mellark, are taken into custody, whisked to the Capitol, thrown into glamorous makeovers and grueling training, readying themselves to be pitted against the ruthless “Career Tributes,” who hail from the wealthier districts and have prepared for these Games their entire lives.

In the days to come, under the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss will sharpen her instincts, hone her archery skills and focus her growing strength and will on what seems to be the task at hand: stay alive at all costs.

But as she enters the forested outdoor arena as a surprise leading contender in the Games, Katniss begins to see that far more than the promise of fame, fortune and existence itself are on the line. For if she is to win, she will have to make decisions both defiant and heart-rending, weighing survival against humanity, safety against trust and life against love.

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