Lionsgate’s Smart ‘Hunger Games’ Marketing Tactics, Vallee To Helm Joplin Biopic, Freeman Dances ‘Taliban Shuffle’

SSN ORIGINALS

The Smart Marketing Tactics Lionsgate Leveraged To Build the $1.5 Billion ‘Hunger Games’ Franchise

How do you market a film wherein 23 kids are killed in brutal battle to a young adult audience? That was the conundrum posed to the marketing team at Lionsgate, tasked with promoting the first film in a franchise based on the ultra-popular Hunger Games novel series. (SSN)

TODAY’S HEADLINES

‘Wild’ Director Continues His Habit Of Directing True Stories, Signs On To Helm Janis Joplin Biopic

Jean-Marc Vallee, who also directed Dallas Buyers Club, will direct Amy Adams in the still untitled flick, based on a Ron and Theresa Terry script. The film will shoot in mid-2015. (DH)

Tina Fey Might Be Getting Some Hobbit Help In ‘Taliban Shuffle’

Martin Freeman is in talks to join Fey and Margot Robbie in the dark comedy, adapted from Kim Barker’s wartime memoir, subtitled Strange Days In Afghanistan And Pakistan. (EMP)

Add “Director” To the Impressive List Of Channing Tatum’s Titles

The Foxcatcher star and his partner, Reid Carolin, have signed on to co-direct and produce the YA adaptation of Matthew Quick’s Leonard Peacock, which centers on a troubled high schooler who plans to kill his best friend and then himself. (THR)

Abdication Has Been Forced On Queen Latifah, as CBS Cancels Her Talk Show

The day time yakker suffered from weak ratings and will end after the second season runs out, in March. Latifah will return to acting and producing new TV and film projects. (SAA)

Looks Like Captain Jack Sparrow Is Getting a Real ‘Son Of a Gun’ as His Mate In ‘Pirates 5’

Brenton Thwaites, star of The Giver and the upcoming Son Of a Gun, is in talks to join Johnny Depp in the fifth episode in the popular series, due in theaters summer of 2017. (SF)

A Former Doctor Who Is Going 180 Degrees and Becoming ‘Patient Zero’

Matt Smith, who can also be seen in next summer’s Terminator: Genisys reboot, will take the lead in the Screen Gems film, about a super strain of rabies that has caused a global pandemic and a new extremely violent species.  (BC)

Up and Coming Horror Director E.L. Katz Swears That ‘You’ll Be the Death Of Me’

Helmer of Cheap Thrills will run the show for Lionsgate’s new comedy thriller that follows two single New Yorkers whose budding romance is complicated by “a masked knife-wielding psychopath.” (COL)

This ‘Planet Of the Apes’ Prequel Series Might Be Around a Bit Longer Than We Originally Thought

Andy Serkis — Caesar himself — has revealed that he doesn’t actually know how long the rebooted Planet Of The Apes franchise will go on for, and is teasing that there could be as many as five more in the series. (CB)

As We Take a Turn Through All These Movies Based On Real Events, How Much Of ‘Foxcatcher’ Is Real?

A list of eight things that you may or may not know about the real story involving John du Pont and the Schultz brothers. Obviously, there are major spoilers ahead. (BF)