Suzanne Collins’ Catching Fire gets the girls fired up, discussing the frustrating lack of communication, the wonderful new characters, and the mistakes the Capitol makes in this installment of The Hunger Games. And how exactly are the presidents chosen in Panem?
Our other HG episodes: The Hunger Games (book) (movie), Catching Fire (movie), and Mockingjay (book) (first movie).
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For similar adaptations, check out our episodes on Ender’s Game, The Book Thief, City of Bones, Percy Jackson, and The Host.
SHOW NOTES:
Music: If We Burn, You Burn With Us by Alex Carpenter
Upcoming
-Nov 15 (US), Jan 17 (UK)
-Based on the memoir of Jordan Belfort
-Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, PJ Byrne and Jon Favreau
-Nov 15 (US),
-Based on the novel by Markus Zusak, covered on episode #65
-Starring Sophie Nelisse, Geoffrey Rush, and Emily Watson
Main Discussion
Catching Fire
-by Suzanne Collins
-published in 2009
-covered The Hunger Games novel in episode #6: Hunger Games, Y U So Brilliant?
-covered the film in episode #7: Seneca Crane’s Beard Invalidates Your Argument
-issues/themes: government/brainwashing/consumerism, survival/hunger, romance, family, intelligence/worth, communication
-characters: katniss, gale, haymitch, peeta, cinna, prep team/effie/capitol citizens, finnick, johanna, mags, wiress, beetee, plutarch heavensbee, prim, president snow,
Notes:
-smack down in district 12
-capitol has made two big mistakes so far: letting Peeta and Katniss team up in the first, and putting the victors in again in the second
-romance: I get so frustrated at her for not sitting them down and having a talk with them, Peeta’s crush develops to a level I can believe, Gale starts to strike me as more putting her on a pedestal
-once she decided to fight I start to like her more, but everyone else still doesn’t respect or trust her, and that is SO FRUSTRATING to me,
-still a piece in another game
-communication: they are constantly being listened to and thus have so little time to be honest
-Katniss and Haymitch don’t need to say it, keeping things from Peeta
-the three of them as a team
-talking to Wiress and Beetee about the uprisings in code
-the arena, the gamemakers don’t interfere as much
-the president dresses her in her wedding dress for the interviews
-the end that they were all in this secret uprising that was kept from her even when she figured parts of it out and came to Haymitch about it
-the pregnancy kinda comes to nothing
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
-Nov 21 (UK), Nov 22 (US)
-Screenwriter: Simon Beaufoy (interview in Minisode #1)
-Director: Francis Lawrence
-Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland and Lenny Kravitz
Adaptation Podcast 
Thanks for the shout out. Hope you guys are enjoying “S” – I know that Jennifer did. Great podcast, just saw Catching Fire myself last week. Now pondering whether to read the final book in advance of the movie. Thoughts?
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well, the final book is going to be split into two films, so you’ll have quite a while to wait to find out what happens if you don’t read the book. but I’m always in favor of reading first, so I’m biased.
what did you think about Catching Fire?
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As a film (without the ‘benefit’ of having read ahead to know the upcoming plots, I liked it. However, for a casual user, it could “almost” be considered a remake of the first film, with some amendments. (Selection, journey, parade, arena, post arena). With the exception, of course, of the ending, which i am keen to see how it turns out,.
I doubt i can wait 2 full years for that – so will likely read the novels very shortly.
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I can see where you’re coming from in saying that it’s almost a remake. But I do think that it’s interesting to compare the differences in each step, how people that aren’t Katniss are reacting so differently and starting to realize how horrible this is, or the tributes are majorly pissed off and the whole before is just a big eff you to the government.
Something that we said in the book podcast was how upset we were that the trailer spoiled the fact that they were going back in bc that was a huge OMG moment in the book. Were you spoiled before-hand?
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