The Hunger Games

Elizabeth Banks is In for ‘Catching Fire’

Posted By: Erin Gross • 0 Comments

Elizabeth Banks as Effie is a treat. She recently spoke to Canada.com…

With Elizabeth Banks’ friend Gary Ross out as writer-director for The Hunger Games follow up, Catching Fire, some wondered if Banks would be out, too.

“No way”, Banks says during a recent Los Angeles interview promoting her latest movie, People Like Us, opening June 29.

But she does have ties that bind with the director. The actress made her major movie debut in Ross’ Seabiscuit.

And, she also lobbied the writer-director aggressively. The obsessive fan of Suzanne Collins trilogy of sci-fi novels desperately needed to play the high-profile Hunger Games part of Effie Trinket. And she convinced him she could.

The subsequent film of the first book, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, went on to earn positive reviews and raked in $660.8 million US at the box office world wide.

During promotional interviews for The Hunger Games, Ross gave every indication he was returning to write and direct Catching Fire (recently renamed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), which begins filming in the fall for a November, 2013 release.