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 (novel) had sold 800,000 copies by February 2010. Since its release, "The Hunger Games" has been translated into 26 languages, and publishing rights have been sold in 38 territories. The novel is the first in "The Hunger Games" trilogy, followed by "Catching Fire" (2009) and "Mockingjay" (2010). A film adaptation, directed by Gary Ross and co-written and co-produced by Collins herself, was released in 2012. Collins has said that the inspiration for "The Hunger Games" came from channel surfing on television. On one channel she observed people competing on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the invasion