Casting director Debra Zane has been hired to flesh out the novel’s dystopian world for the screen. In author Suzanne Collins’s best-selling trilogy of futuristic youth fiction, the studio hopes it has the makings of a “Twilight”-size franchise.
In summing up Zane’s strengths, the studio also laid out the challenge the casting director faces with “Hunger Games.” That is, casting “the people you imagined [as the characters] but not the ones you expected,” says Alli Shearmur, president of motion picture production for Lionsgate.
Zane is a Hollywood veteran whose resume includes “Twilight: Breaking Dawn,” the coming two-part finale to the vampire juggernaut. Having worked with “Hunger Games” director Gary Ross previously on films such as “Seabiscuit” and “Pleasantville,” she was widely expected to get the job.
The filmmakers, including Ross and producer Nina Jacobson, have said they’re open to casting actors who are unknown (a relative term) in the lead roles. Shearmur says, “The movie-star elements of the franchise are the books and the characters Suzanne Collins created.” But don’t expect Zane to conduct an “American Idol” style cattle call. Instead, she’ll likely use professional channels to cast a wide net. The stated goal: creating a level playing field for candidates ranging from, say, a promising young theater actor to an emerging screen star.
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