The excitement surrounding the next Hunger Games film, Catching Fire, is reaching fever pitch, with tickets for the film now on sale and doing brisk business. One of the new features of the second instalment will be sequences shot in IMAX, and the cast and crew talk about what it means for Catching Fire in a new featurette.
Obviously, as Chris Nolan and other filmmakers have proved, shooting portions of large-scale movies in IMAX helps add to the drama and scope of the film, and provides advantages that 3D may sometimes lack.
In Catching Fire’s case, the cameras were used for the action inside the Arena. With Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) returned home safe after winning the gladiatorial-style 74th Hunger Games, along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), they’re immediately packed off on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control. President Snow (Donald Sutherland) prepares the 75th Games, part of the Quarter Quell, to plunge Katniss, Peeta and a selection of previous Victors back into combat.
With Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Sam Claflin, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Jena Malone, Willow Shields and Philip Seymour Hoffman among the cast, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is out on November 21. There’s plenty more on the film in the latest issue of **Empire, available both in print and also digital versions for the iPad and Android systems.