If you want to keep all but the most rabid of fans interested in your tween adaptation, don’t do what Lionsgate has done with The Hunger Games. Every day comes a new announcement, usually consisting of John Smith and Jane Doe playing Smith and Doe from District 6, and we’re supposed to be excited. Even the Lenny Kravitz news — intriguing a pick as it was — was dulled by the fact that it was a big announcement for a smallish role.  (Again, I haven’t read the books, but even the Hunger Games Wiki seems to have trouble investing Kravitz’s Cinna with much of a character description beyond “He designs her clothes! And he seems nice!”)

No, Lionsgate. Cast Donald Sutherland, and I’m intrigued, but even that has been dulled by seeing “The Hunger Games Casts…!” on every single feed I possess.

At any rate, Sutherland has been cast as the villainous President Snow, despot of Panem, cold-hearted mastermind of the bloody Hunger Games.  It’s a departure from the book’s description — evil comes in a small and unassuming form — but it’s Donald Sutherland, so who can complain?

Incidentally, the headline is not meant to disparage Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Kravitz, Toby Jones, Wes Bentley, Elizabeth Banks, or the 4,000 other actors and actresses who are in this.   This is a film that’s attracted quite a number of talented people, many of whom have gotten lost in the gleeful buzz machine.