Trivia / The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

• California Doubling: Whereas the entirety of the first movie was shot in North Carolina, Catching Fire and both parts of Mockingjay were filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. Notably:
  • The town square and Justice Building of District 11 is actually a warehouse complex on Murphy Avenue, southwest of downtown Atlanta
  • President Snow's mansion is the 1920s Swan House in Buckhead, in northern Atlanta. The estate's Morning Room was transformed into Snow’s office.
  • The Justice Building of District 12, where Katniss and Peeta once again find themselves drafted to fight the deadly games, is the Goat Farm Arts Center, a complex of 19th Century former industrial buildings on Atlanta’s west side.
  • The victors’ living quarters in the Capitol is actually Atlanta’s Marriott Marquis Hotel
  • The backstage area for the chariot parade, where Katniss meets Finnick, is actually the parking garage for the Georgia World Congress Center. The Victory Tour stage itself is the city’s Peachtree DeKalb Airport – embellished with CGI.
  • The island of Oahu, Hawaii represents the Quarter Quell arena.
  • Because Georgia apparently couldn’t provide the wintery backdrop for the opening scenes of Katniss suffering post-traumatic flashbacks as she hunts in the woods with Gale, the scene was filmed in Ramapo Mountain State Forest in northern New Jersey.
• Career Resurrection: For Jena Malone, who had all but faded into obscurity by the time the film was released.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Alan Ritchson originally auditioned for Finnick Odair, but was rejected because he was too old (he was 30 at the time, whereas Finnick was in his early 20s). He was cast as Gloss instead.
• Dawson Casting: Played straight with Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth, who are in their early 20s and play 17-year-olds (19-year-old in the case of Hemsworth's character). Averted with Sam Claflin, who's close to Finnick's age, and, like the first film, inverted with Prim, whose actress, Willow Shields, is a year younger (12) than her (13). Zig-zagged with Jena Malone, who was in her late 20s playing a character in her early 20s.
• Deleted Scene: One deleted scene showed Plutarch Heavensbee burning the envelope containing the originally planned twist for the Quarter Quell, confirming a theory many fans of the book had that the "Tributes Selected From Past Winners" twist was a specific attempt to target Katniss.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Sam Claflin has seriously put on muscle for his role as Finnick.
  • Jennifer Lawrence, who had plain brown hair in the first movie, had her hair dyed black for Catching Fire, which is closer to Katniss' physical description in the books. Her skin also looks noticeably tanned in certain scenes, compared to the first film. ^note In the books, Katniss was Ambiguously Brown, and her being played by wholly Caucasian Jennifer Lawrence caused quite a few outcries of whitewashing.
  • Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson also both dyed their hair again for their roles.
• Fake American: Brit Sam Claflin as Finnick, and also Aussie Liam Hemsworth as Gale.

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