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) "Empire" magazine said "Lawrence is perfect as Katniss, there's very little softness about her, more a melancholy determination that good must be done even if that requires bad things." Several critics have reviewed the film favorably and compared it with other young adult fiction adaptations such as "Harry Potter" and "Twilight". Justin Craig of Fox News rated the film as "[e]xcellent" and stated: "Move over Harry Potter. A darker, more mature franchise has come to claim your throne." Rafer Guzman of "Newsday" referred to "The Hunger Games" as being "darker than <nowiki>'</nowiki>"Harry Potter",' more sophisticated than <nowiki>'</nowiki>"Twilight"<nowiki>'</nowiki>." David Sexton of