Sure, sure, the Deathly Hallows Part 1 DVD is out now, and everyone is dashing home to watch hours of special features, but here in Western NC, there’s buzz of another kind. Extra casting calls begin today for a movie being called Artemis. Since Artemis, like Katniss Everdeen, is an archer and huntress (and since she’s one ancient deity not licensed by Marvel Comics and thus not getting a film of her own), this is very likely The Hunger Games. It looks like there will be several calls in the region, and I do have friends planning to attend, so I’ll give you the full after-action report on the madness as thousands of people try to be one of a thousand needed extras (who will never be seen on the screen and who will likely be replaced with CGI anyway!)
These calls do seem legitimate, though there have been bogus ones for many other popular book-to-movie adaptations, like Harry Potter and Twilight. Part of the wariness on this one stems from other episodes that seem questionable, including an email the folks over at the Forever Young Adult blog recently got from a supposed Lionsgate legal rep, reading them the riot act for posting bits of a possible (and ostensibly fake) script for the Hunger Games film. I’m rather disinclined to believe the email is legitimate (the grammar is problematic; let’s hope a big studio gets lawyers with a grasp of subject/verb agreement), but it certainly opens a whole can of worms on copyright, infringement, and other legal issues. Whether the film folks really are acting like the Capitol or not (and the irony would be fun if they were), such encounters do make us wary about a variety of rumors we hear.
If Hollywood, as we suspect, is playing the Capitol role as it produces a movie critiquing everything it stands for, does that make Collins, as we’ve intimated here in the past, our real-world Cinna: dazzling us with her pyrotechnics while all the while subverting the very genre in which she works, the stage upon which we see her magic spring to life? Perhaps; in the meantime, I’m waiting for a call from my friends to see if they survived the Reaping, er, extra calls.
Please keep us updated if there are more casting calls. I’m living nearby and could really use the chance to build up my resume. Thank you!
Yes, I agree that rumors are just that. Regarding the Forever YA email scuffle, though, the blog was summarizing the alleged email from Lionsgate, so I don’t see grammar as an indicator of legitimacy. I do believe studios will use bullying tactics to protect their material, even if it’s a fake version. The Internet age has drastically changed filmmaking, piracy, and privacy. But the studio’s actions seem too paranoid and over-controlling–of a fake, no less.
I like the idea of Collins as Cinna–brilliant!
There is a great YA book series — I’ve read six of them and the most recent has been on my ‘to read’ list for too long — in which the name ‘Artemis’ is featured much more obviously than ‘The Hunger Games’ connection you make.
Could the long over-due ‘Artemis Fowl’ movie adaptations be shot in North Carolina? It’s a big UK series, Ireland specifically, but the first book is primarily shot in a huge mansion and miles beneath the surface of the earth so Biltmore would be a great stand-in… I’m doubting Eoin Colfer would buy in, however, to a US production.
Hi. My name is Lilly, I’m a 10 year old girl living in Cary, North Carolina. I have ALWAYS wanted to be in a movie. I would LOVE it if you could maybe email me about extras, casting in North Carolina. Thank you so much!!!