Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci join The Hunger Games

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed Woody Harrelson will play Haymitch Abernathy in Gary Ross’ adaptation of The Hunger Games. Stanley Tucci has also signed on to play Caesar Flickerman, the host of the Games.

The news of Tucci and Harrelson joining Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth brings a bit more excitement to the otherwise painfully drawn out casting of nameless tributes on the official Facebook page. The casting of Haymitch needed to be spot on, and I believe in Harrelson they’ve truly found the drunkard mentor for Katniss and Peeta.

Another district has been given its unnamed tributes and the question is – does anyone care? Obviously if your character doesn’t even have a name you’re not going to be around for that long. But we shall name them, as we have previously. Jeremy Marinas and Dakota Hood have signed on to play Tribute Boy and Girl from District 10. Tribute Boy is described as “the boy with the crippled foot”, which is what I’d be putting on my resume if I was Marinas.

We’re still waiting on one last district to be cast: District 2. Who will play Cato and Clove – tributes with actual names and meaningful roles? We’re also waiting to hear who will appear as Katniss’ flamboyant designer Cinna, and who will embody the evil character President Snow. We’re confident we won’t have to wait too long for this news.

Discuss: OK, a question for those not totally looking forward to this ‘nu-Twilight’. Does the presence of Harrelson and Tucci get you interested?