Finnick Odair: Sam Claflin Best Choice? + What About Jena Malone as Johanna Mason?

July 18 update: Sam Claflin Catching Fire Finnick Odair. In early summer 2012, there were rumors that Twilight actor Robert Pattinson had been offered and/or landed the role of Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire. Well, apparently they got the wrong Kristen Stewart leading man. Sam Claflin, Prince William (a.k.a. Prince Charming) and one of Stewart’s romantic interests in Snow White and the Huntsman, will reportedly play the trident-fighting Finnick.

Lionsgate and producer Nina Jacobson have “signed off” on Sam Claflin’s offer according to zap2it.com. So far, the studio has remained mum about the matter. Francis Lawrence will direct Catching Fire, which stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson. Amanda Plummer was another recent addition to the film’s cast.

Rumored Finnick Odair actors

Besides Robert Pattinson, among the previously rumored actors for the role of Finnick Odair were Armie Hammer (who, coincidentally, played Prince Charming in Julia Roberts’ Mirror Mirror), Glee‘s Grant Gustin, Ryan Gosling, and another Kristen Stewart leading man, On the Road‘s Garrett Hedlund.

So far, in addition to Claflin, Plummer, Lawrence, Hemsworth, and Hutcherson, the Catching Fire cast also includes Jena Malone, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Willow Shields, Donald Sutherland, Latarsha Rose, Toby Jones, and Lenny Kravitz.

Sam Claflin movies

In addition to the Rupert Sanders-directed Snow White and the Huntsman, Claflin has only one other major screen credit, the Johnny Depp / Penélope Cruz vehicle Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. And as per the IMDb, Sam Claflin’s has only one other feature-film role: in James Strong’s sports drama United.

Reported upcoming Sam Claflin movies include Hammer Films’ supernatural thriller The Quiet Ones, to be directed by John Pogue, and co-starring Jared Harris; and Amma Asante’s Belle, with Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, and Sarah Gadon – who happens to be another Robert Pattinson leading lady (in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis).

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is scheduled to come out in the United States on Nov. 22, 2013.

Sam Claflin picture: Getty Images.

July 23 update: Jena Malone Johanna Mason in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Lionsgate has finally confirmed what just about everyone “knew”: Jena Malone, 27, will be playing the abrasive Johanna Mason in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, to be directed by Francis Lawrence, and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson. Expect sparks to fly between Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen and Malone’s Johanna M.

In other Catching Fire news, last week, it was announced – without any official confirmation thus far – that Snow White and the Huntsman‘s Sam Claflin was going to play the handsome fighter Finnick Odair.

In addition to Malone, Lawrence, Hemsworth, Hutcherson, and (apparently) Claflin, the Catching Fire cast also includes Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Willow Shields, Donald Sutherland, Latarsha Rose, Toby Jones, and Lenny Kravitz.

Jena Malone movies

Though not exactly a household name, Jena Malone has been appearing in movies and on television since 1996. Malone’s small-screen roles include guest spots in Chicago Hope, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Touched by an Angel, in addition to recurring roles in Hatfields & McCoys and the recent Dakota, in which Malone has the title role.

On the big screen, Malone’s credits include Contact (1997), in which she plays Jodie Foster as a child; a small role in Anthony Minghella’s Cold Mountain (2003), starring Jude Law; Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice (2005), as one of Keira Knightley’s sisters, Lydia Bennett; Danny Buday’s psychological drama 5 Star Day (2011), opposite Twilight‘s Cam Gigandet; and Zack Snyder’s lambasted commercial flop Sucker Punch (2011), with Emily Browning and Vanessa Hudgens.

Besides playing Johanna Mason in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, other Jena Malone movie projects include an updated film version of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, directed by Charles Huddleston, and with Malone in a supporting role as Christine Linde; and M. Blash’s drama The Wait, in which, as per the IMDb, “two sisters decide to keep their deceased mother in their home after being informed that she will come back to life.” Chloë Sevigny co-stars.

Jena Malone Sucker Punch movie image: Clay Enos | Warner Bros.

May 29

Robert Pattinson will not play Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games’ sequel Catching Fire. The source for the rumor was an “exclusive” at the website Think McFly Think, which claimed that Lionsgate was after Pattinson for the role. The actor himself, however, has said it’s not true, he was never offered the Catching Fire role, and there’s no chance he would be offered it, either.

“I woke up this morning and saw all these things about me being cast in The Hunger Games,” Pattinson, while at the Cannes Film Festival, told USA Today. “I was kind of curious for a second. So I called my agent. … My agent was like, ‘No,’ … no one’s going to offer you that part.”

Robert Pattinson as Finnick Odair: Rumor source

The were probably a couple of reasons for the rumor: Francis Lawrence will be directing Catching Fire and Lionsgate has absorbed Summit Entertainment. In 2010, Lawrence directed Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants, a moderately successful romantic drama co-starring Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz. Summit is the company behind the Twilight Saga movies, starring Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner.

For now, confirmed for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire are Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson.

Robert Pattinson as Finnick: Overwhelmingly negative reaction

Now, one curious thing was the overwhelmingly, at times viciously negative reaction to the announcement that Robert Pattinson might be cast as Catching Fire‘s Finnick Odair, a character known as a handsome fighter and heartbreaker. (Check out #PattinsonIsNotFinnick on Twitter.) Whether explicit or merely implied, the chief – and quite bizarre – complaint was that an actor associated with Twilight, especially one who sparkles, should not be considered for a movie based on Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games book trilogy.

Here’s wondering if the overall reaction will be as negative for the other actors recently rumored (the mill never stops) for the role of Finnick. I mean, is it okay for an actor associated with John Carter and Battleship (Taylor Kitsch) to get the role? What about an actor associated with TRON: Legacy and Eragon (Garrett Hedlund)? Or Mirror Mirror and J. Edgar (Armie Hammer)? Online suggestions for Finnick ranged from Ryan Gosling to Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zac Efron.

Anyhow, Robert Pattinson will not be playing Finnick Odair, but he does have Cosmopolis’ Eric Packer to his credit. The unconventional David Cronenberg comedy-drama earned Pattinson numerous positive – some, highly positive – notices in the international media after it was screened at Cannes.

Next in line for Pattinson are two recently announced projects: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s Mission: Blacklist, about the US military interrogator who helped to capture Saddam Hussein, and David Michôd’s thriller The Rover, co-starring Guy Pearce. Pattinson’s next two Stateside releases are Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod’s Bel Ami, which is currently available on VOD, and the final installment in the Twilight franchise, Bill Condon’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, featuring fellow sparklers Kristen Stewart (now vampirized), Elizabeth Reaser, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen, and Kellan Lutz.