Georgia Film News:

Written by Bo Shurling

For several months rumors have been circulating that Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games, was going to be at least partially filmed in Georgia. While there still was no official announcement by press time, we’ve ascertained enough skinny (so to speak) to confirm that this is, indeed, the case. Using a common ruse tactic, Lionsgate shot the first film under the working title Artemis; now, the website acting-auditions.org has posted that a film with the working title Artemis 2 will shoot in Georgia and the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The site lists one of the roles types being cast as an “emaciated Morphling addict with hanging jaundiced skin.” Meanwhile, taking the title ruse even further, the Atlanta office of extras casting company CL Casting is taking submissions for extras for the same project but is calling it The Idiom. One of their Facebook call-outs: “Seeking women that are a size 0 or 00 and men that are very low percentage of body fat.” Taking the reigns from the first film’s Gary Ross, Austrian filmmaker Frances Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine) will direct. Filming is expected to run from the summer through December, after which star Jennifer Lawrence (pictured, from the first Hunger Games) will begin work on the sequel to X-Men: First Class. That movie shot scenes in Savannah, but there’s no word yet on if production on the sequel will return to the state. Finally, the third book of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, will be shot as two films, to be released a year apart. Catching Fire is currently scheduled for a November 2013 theatrical release. Motor City, starring Gerard Butler, is prepping in Georgia through September 15th with plans to shoot here through November 9th. Butler will play a recently released felon who begins tracking down the men who framed him. Gary Oldman was set to play the film’s villain and Amber Heard the female lead but both have dropped out of the project. The site indiewire.com suggested the “the delayed schedule may be to blame (lensing was originally slated to begin in the spring).”  This will be the solo directorial debut for Albert Hughes, who formerly directed Dead Presidents, From Hell and The Book of Eli with his brother Allen. Adult Swim has placed a pilot order for a 30-minute live-action comedy entitled Freestyle Love Supreme which is on the slate to film in Georgia August 18-22. Lin-Manuel Miranda (The Odd Life of Timothy Green, which was filmed in Georgia and hits theaters August 15th) stars in the show that revolves around IT guys who work on their freestyle rapping at the office, pissing off their co-workers in the process. Because of their work on The Walking Dead, currently shooting in the Senoia, Georgia area through November 16th, visual effects house Stargate Studios has set up shop in Georgia “The Walking Dead is a force of its own,” said Sam Nicholson, Stargate’s founder and CEO. “We’ve been on it since the first season. After a couple of great seasons, we decided to bring the work to Georgia.” The studio hopes to line up other films or television work as projects keep moving to the state. Mailing Avenue StageWorks is slated to open a new sound stage in Grant Park in August. Rumors are that MTV will be shooting the one-hour pilot for Cassandra French’s Finishing School For Boys in Georgia sometime this year. The project is being executive produced by Krysten Ritter (The B---- in Apt 23) and Eric Garcia who wrote the book with same name about a 22-year-old overachieving Hollywood studio lawyer who tires of the hell that is dating immature men – so she locks a bad date guy in her basement to train him to be the perfect gentleman. Rose McIver (The Lovely Bones) plays the titular character. Michael Lehmann, who brings his dark side sensibilities from True Blood, American Horror Stories, Dexter and Heathers, is slated to direct. Another rumor floating around Georgia movies is that Lindsay Lohan will join the cast of Scary Movie 5 when it films in Georgia September 3rd through October 26th. The series Lovetown USA that was filmed in Kingsland, Georgia premieres on the Oprah Winfrey Network on Sunday, August 19, at 10 p.m. The network calls the show a social experiment that was kicked off with a “Love Rally” during which the talk show mogul challenged the city’s folk to “open their arms and heart to the possibilities to all kinds of love” and then sang a rousing round of "Kumbaya" and roasted s’mores by a huge campfire. Actually, the show focuses on two relationship coaches who will attempt to repair broken relationships and find mates for the single folk. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, parts of which were filmed in Georgia, will have its world premiere when it opens the 69th Venice International Film Festival on August 29th. The film starring Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland and Liev Schreiber is based on the best selling novel of the same name, about young Pakistani working on Wall Street when 9/11 shatters his world and causes him to question everything he thought he knew.