Earlier this year, Chris Evans entered and won the “Who gets to be Captain America?” contest. Earlier this summer, Andrew Garfield entered and won the “Who gets to be Spider-Man?” contest. Sometime soon, an actress — probably an unknown; maybe Natalie Portman; definitely not Carey Mulligan —will win the “Who gets to be Lisbeth Salander?” contest. And then what? Will we be asked to go weeks without a young Hollywood talent competition to obsess upon? Would the moviemaking gods be so cruel? Please. The next win-a-franchise battle — this one called the “Who gets to be Katniss Everdeen?” contest — is scheduled to begin on August 24, with the release of Mockingjay, the third installment in Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, a series of adult-loved YA books that will be adapted into movies, and that you will only be hearing more about.
Set in a dystopian future, the series stars Katniss Everdeen, a stoic, badass teenager, who, like Twilight’s Bella, is caught in a love triangle — Team Gale! Team Peeta! — but, unlike Bella, does not need vampires to kill things for her, being perfectly capable of killing things herself. In the series’ first book — insanely readable, and as is, essentially a perfect screenplay — Katniss is forced to play in the titular Hunger Games, a reality show to the death, while inadvertently fomenting a revolution. Whoever lands the part of Katniss will get to use a bow and arrow, fight for her survival, have sexy-time with handsome teenagers, wear fire, and, you know, have a movie franchise. We handicap the likely contenders.
Saoirse Ronan
The blonde, coltish, Ronan — the star of Atonement and The Lovely Bones — is the right age, 16, and, with some dirt on her face, would look the part. She’d have to suppress some of her natural fragility.
Odds: 4 to 1
Saoirse got invited to join the voting members of the Academy. Thanks to M for the tip again.
The star of “Funny People” is among the 135 actors, craftspeople and industry executives who are this year’s invitees to join the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
On the list of actors are recent Oscar winners and nominees Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique (“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”), Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”), Carey Mulligan (“An Education”), Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”), Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”), and Saoirse Ronan (“Atonement,” “The Lovely Bones”).
“The work of these individuals has been appreciated by moviegoers all around the world,” said Academy President Tom Sherak. “The Academy is proud to invite each and every one of them.”
The Academy’s voting membership is currently just under 6,000.
Saoires named at number 11 of the Top Actress Under 30 of the past year in a new talent list.
Hoping for better things since Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones is lead actress Saoirse Ronan (just 16) in 11th, with a new entry at 12 in quirky Twilight and Up In The Air star Anna Kendrick, 24, who introduces a comic touch to the Top 20.
A statement from Guardian.co.uk.
We apologise to the staff and pupils of Kilkenny College, a boarding school in south-east Ireland, for mistakenly identifying it as a school that Saoirse Ronan left because teachers and students were giving her a hard time (A name to reckon with, 23 January, page 16, Weekend). Contrary to what we stated, Saoirse Ronan was never a student at Kilkenny College. We accept that Kilkenny College guards the interests of its pupils and regret any implication to the contrary.
#70. The Way Back
Director/Writer: Peter Weir
Producers: Weir, Joni Levin and Duncan Henderson (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)
Distributor: Rights Available.The Gist: This is a fact-based story of the escape of soldiers from a Siberian gulag in 1940. This is based it on several sources, most notably the Slavomir Rawicz book “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom” about being account of being captured by the Red Army in 1939 and his journey to freedom with other inmates. The group crossed the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert and the Himalayas, finally settling in Tibet and India…..(more)
Cast: Mark Strong, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess and Ed Harris.
Why is it on the list?: Remember when Harrison For was trying to make an ice machine in Central America? Humans vs. Nature appears to be Weir’s specialty and there’s nothing better than an escape film in the great outdoors (this is set in Bulgaria, Morocco and India). I’m putting my money on Weir and that this film won’t bite.
Release Date/Status?: I’m assuming a huge premiere at a major film festival as it has yet to find a buyer for the U.S.
Saoirse has been nominated for Actress in a Lead Role of Irish Film And Television Awards.
Actress in a Lead Role – Film
Saoirse Ronan – The Lovely Bones (Paramount)
Irish actress Saoirse Ronan has praised moviemaker Peter Jackson for his decision not to show the rape and murder of her character in his adaptation of Alice Sebold’s bestseller “The Lovely Bones”. Jackson and his co-producer wife Fran Walsh have came under fire from fans of the book for failing to depict Ronan’s tragic Susie Salmon falling victim to the horrific act.
Ronan agreed with their decision – and admits she is baffled by anybody wanting to watch the harrowing scene. She says, “To be honest, I really don’t know why anyone would want to see a 14-year-old girl raped in a movie and killed.”
“I feel very strongly about this. That’s certainly not the type of movie that… (we) wanted to make. And Peter Jackson or not, that was not the kind of movie that I would want to be in. Plus, Susie actually runs away from her murder so the story is fueled by that.”
“By her going on this journey to trying to understand what happened to her body. That scene is very, very intense. So I think if we had put something else in, anything else, it would have completely overwhelmed the story.”
Focus Features have confirmed that director Joe Wright will team with his Atonement actress Saoirse Ronan on new film Hanna.
Although plot details are thin, the film will be about a young girl (Ronan) who is raised in the wilds of Europe by her ex-military father – presumably trained in various forms of combat, as tends to happen – and focuses on the 14 year-old’s fight against US Intelligence to get back to family.
Wright is best known for his Oscar-nommed period dramas, and Ronan hardly typifies the action hero type, so Hanna seems something of an odd choice, but we’re going to file this one under ‘fairly interesting’ for now..
No further casting news to report thus far, but the role of the father sounds fairly pivotal – perhaps one of Wright’s previous collaborators could fill those shoes, Downey Jr perhaps?
From the vague synopsis, this seems a little Kick-Ass meets La Femme Nikita, which done properly has all the potential to be pretty spectacular. Lets just hope it is a little more focused than Wright’s last effort, the critically assaulted The Soloist.
Hanna is set to begin shooting later this year in Europe.
Saoirse Ronan didn’t read ‘The Lovely Bones’ before starring in the film.
The 15-year-old actress – who plays the role of a murdered teenager Susie Salmonl looking down on earth – avoided reading the emotional book because she felt she was not old enough to understand it properly.
She said: “When I did get the role, I waited to read it until after I’d made the film because I was a little too young to read it.
“I’d heard it was a tough read, especially the first chapter, with rape and murder. After reading it now, I realise that it is quite tough but I eventually did read it and it was beautiful.
“I thought that Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillippa Boyens did a great job adapting it.”
Sairse also admitted she didn’t discuss the murder scene with her co-star Stanley Tucci before they filmed it.
She told Teen Hollywood: “We didn’t talk about it beforehand. I don’t think Stanley really wanted to.”
Saoirse Ronan
This young Irish actress stole the screen in her first major film “Atonement” from bigger-named actors Keira Knightly and James McAvoy.
Saoirse Ronan also earned her first Academy Award nomination. In her current film, Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones,” Ronan is earning raves for her role as murdered teen Susie Salmon, the film’s narrator, even if the film is not.
At just 15, Ronan, whose first name is pronounced “Seer-sha,” is likely to be around for a while. Next up, Peter Weir’s “The Way Back,” in which she’ll no doubt hold her own against Colin Farrell and Ed Harris.
“She’s on the younger end of the spectrum, which means she has a lot of time and can play both teenage roles and move into young adult roles,” Kilday said. “She’s already established her credentials within the industry. Now she’s building up a public persona in terms of film audiences.”
Hanna 
The Way Back
The Lovely Bones
