There is going to be a very familiar tune when you take a look at the new motion poster for the highly anticipated The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Production for the new Francis Lawrence-directed film should be nearing completion. In two days we will be a year way from the film’s release, so the Lionsgate marketing team has decided to release the brand new poster now.

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, and Donald Sutherland will all be joined by newcomers Jena Malone, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lynn Cohen, Alan Ritchson, Sam Claflin and Jeffrey Wright. With a new poster out, this could mean that a teaser trailer is not too far behind. Lionsgate will release The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in IMAX on November 22, 2013. Check out the new motion poster below.

The Hunger Games
Blu-ray | DVD
DIRECTOR: Gary Ross
WRITER: Billy Ray, Suzanne Collins, Gary Ross
STARRING: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Alexander Ludwig, Amandla Stenberg, Wes Bentley, Donald Sutherland, Willow Shields, Paula Malcolmson, Toby Jones
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: August 17, 2012

Before a movie adaptation of The Hunger Games was announced, I knew not one thing about it, not even the title. Going into finally seeing the movie for myself, I knew it was based on a wildly popular book series and whatever small story and character tidbits picked up while writing about various casting news and such. This is how I prefer going into any movie, whether it be an adaptation or sequel or completely original, so that there is no expectation whatsoever.

The premise is simple, yet also quite brutal. After an apocalyptic event transforms North America, a wealthy government called the Capitol takes total control over the less-wealthy people and forms them into thirteen districts. After an uprising by the people ultimately results in the destruction of one of the districts, an unthinkable punishment is put into effect to keep everyone in check: each year, one boy and one girl ages 12-18 from each of the twelve districts will be selected at random to compete in the Hunger Games, where all 24 will fight to the death until only one remains.

The cast for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire continues to grow and many of the casting rumors are being confirmed. We previously reported that Jena Malone has beat out Mia Wasikowska and Zoe Aggeliki for the role of Johanna Mason. During that time, Philip Seymour Hoffman was rumored to take the role of the new game maker Plutarch Heavensbee.

Well consider that rumor to be confirmed. Hoffman will indeed be playing the part of Heavensbee the new game maker hired for the Third Quarter Quell.

The popularity of IMAX is increasing, hopefully far enough to jump ahead of the popularity of 3D. Recently Lionsgate released The Hunger Games in Digital IMAX. For those that don’t know, it was digitally retrofitted for the IMAX screen. But there are some films that are shot using IMAX cameras, something that Christopher Nolan is a huge proponent of. Now The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will be presented in its full IMAX glory.

THR reports that Francis Lawrence will begin shooting the film this fall, with the intent on using IMAX cameras for certain scenes in the film. Now I have to go and reread the box to see which parts can been seen in IMAX.

Yesterday no less an authority than President Camacho himself, Terry freakin’ Crews, promised us that a new trailer for The Expendables 2 would be arriving online today to put a blood-and-skull-splattered boot in our collective ass. Sure enough as I sit here with The Dirty Dozen, the original (and still best) of the all-star superteam action-adventures, playing in the background I sit here writing this: Today Crews’ loud and awful snarly promise was fulfilled.

You can watch the mighty new trailer here below.

I’m a huge fan of the first Expendables, but having re-watched it on Blu-ray recently it’s clear that the movie has serious problems when it comes to the narrative structure and the staging of the action sequences. Don’t get me wrong, Sylvester Stallone did a fine job directing the movie overall, especially when you take into account that he was also writing and starring in the movie at the same time (and taking some near-paralyzing injuries in the process). But when the aging but still active action hero announced that a new director would take the helm of The Expendables 2 while he stuck to acting duties I took a great amount of relief in that news.