Esteemed actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won a Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Truman Capote in Capote, was found dead today in his Greenwich Village home in New York City, the victim of an apparent drug overdose, according to The New York Post. He was 46.

The actor, who has publicly talked about his struggles with drugs and had been in rehab several times, was reportedly found by his personal assistant in his bathroom with a hypodermic needle still in his arm.

Hoffman was an actor’s actor, a consummate individual who had a jack-of-all-trades kind of chameleonic feel to all his roles, and there were plenty of memorable ones. His sort of slept-in look, top shelf versatility, and intensity endeared him to the mainstream (he had appeared in the second theatrical installment of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire) and to the fringes (Boogie Nights, Capote, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, etc). There was a collective reverence for the man, his work and his art.

Despite seemingly moving forward swimmingly, behind the scenes, the music side of the impending Hunger Games feature film appears to be a bit more troubled.

Variety is reporting that James Newton Howard will be taking over scoring duties on the film from composer Danny Elfman. Elfman was originally slated to team with T. Bone Burnett [odd as hell], but due to scheduling issues, that has now officially changed.

The $10 t-shirt deal of the day over at TeeFury today is a Hunger Games-themed shirt called “Odds In Your Favor” by artist zerobriant.

The sale began at Teefury today, Thursday, November 10, 2011, at midnight EST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore.

The adaptation of the first film in Suzanne Collins’ bestselling Hunger Games trilogy is still in production, which we previously announced here and won’t be released until March of next year, but Lionsgate is already making plans for the next book in the series, Catching Fire, and even has a locked-in release date: November 22, 2013. No further information on the film sequel was released.

I wasn’t familiar with the Hunger Games series until production on the first film was announced, but the basic plot line of the original sounds like a teen-targeted retread of movies like The Running Man, Death Race 2000, The Condemned, and of course Battle Royale (an American remake of which has been talked about for years).

Now, while the second unit director may not get the biggest amount of publication, not every second unit director is one of today’s most interesting filmmakers.

The Playlist uncovered a tweet from production designer Eddie Mills revealing that director Steven Soderbergh is apparently shooting second unit for the upcoming Gary Ross-directed film, The Hunger Games.

Soderbergh has gone on the record many times revealing that he does have every intention in the world in retiring somewhere in the near future, but with this and the cavalcade of projects he has currently on his slate (ranging from the upcoming thriller Contagion to the remake The Man From U.N.C.L.E.), we’ll still be seeing quite a bit from the filmmaker.