Jennifer Lawrence, recently nominated for Best Actress for her work in Winter's Bone, has been chosen as the lead in the upcoming film adaptation of The Hunger Games. If you haven't heard of the property, the trilogy by Suzanne Collins is the latest Young Adult phenomenon to dominate the book world. The story revolves around a distopian future where once a year the government forces a handful of teenagers to fight to the death for entertainment. In some ways the premise is similar to the story of Theseus, where the subjugated Greek cities were forced to send children to the maze of the Minotaur. It's a great read, and if you haven't checked it out yet I encourage you to do so.
Back to the announcement. On the positive side of things, Lawrence is a great actress. The biggest problem with adapting YA fiction to screen is always finding actors who can pull off the full range of emotions at such a young age. With Lawrence in the lead, I have full confidence that the acting will not be a problem for this project. On the negative end, she's a little bit old. She will almost certainly be 21 before the film wraps, and if it's a success she'll probably be past 25 by the time the third movie is made. The character of Katniss is 16 at the start of the series, and is not yet 18 at the conclusion. Unless they plan to drastically alter one of the main plots of the story, she can't possibly be any older than 18. That has some people up in arms. They're worried that they'll age up the whole story, or change the entire premise. I'm not that worried, because Hollywood has always loved casting people in their 20s to play teenagers. I'd rather see someone who has to act down in age a few years, rather than someone who can't act at all. But that's just me
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