The Hunger Games (film) C. Reilly was in talks with Lionsgate to portray Haymitch Abernathy. The following month Lionsgate announced that the role had gone to Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson. The casting of Grammy winner Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, and Toby Jones as Claudius Templesmith, soon followed. Both got the role at the time they were promoting "". Multiple-Golden Globe Award winner Donald Sutherland was cast as President Coriolanus Snow in late May 2011. Gary Ross, Sam Mendes, David Slade, Andrew Adamson, Susanna White, Rupert Sanders, and Francis Lawrence were listed as possible directing candidates, but in
The Hunger Games (film) some viewers saw "The Hunger Games" as a Christian allegory. Jeffrey Weiss of Real Clear Religion, published in the "Star Tribune" has remarked on what he saw as the intentional absence of religion in "The Hunger Games" universe, and has commented that while the stories contain no actual religion, people are "find[ing] aspects that represent their own religious values" within it. Charles McGrath, writing for "The New York Times", said that the film will remind viewers of the television series "Survivor", a little of "The Bachelorette", and of the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson published in 1948 by