Here we are, Hunger Games fans. It's time to relish the first really definitive bit of Catching Fire casting, and it's what we've expected for a couple of weeks now: That Donnie Darko and Sucker Punch alumna Jena Malone will play emotionally tortured, physically ruthless Hunger Games champ Johanna Mason. Let us see you throw those axes and fight Jennifer Lawrence, Jena!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Malone is in talks for the role, but seriously, who would turn this down? Mason seems in line with the other-people-made-me-a-bad-girl persona Malone exhibited as Rocket in Sucker Punch, and even though that Zack Snyder film crashed and burned back in 2011, Catching Fire clearly won't.
Uh, remember this outfit Malone had to wear as Rocket? ... Yeah. Weird. Fairly exploitative and misogynistic. And weird.
Anyway, sadly for me, Malone wasn't on the list of women I hoped would play Mason, but I can live with this casting news (especially because I would have been really shocked, and a little perturbed, if newcomer model Zoe Aggeliki or more established, but less physical, actress Mia Wasikowska had been cast instead, as we discussed here at Punch Drunk Critics last week). Malone was one of the best parts of Sucker Punch, and she's been good in serious fare like The Messenger and Into the Wild, too. Here's to hoping her particular brand of gritty intensity will do Johanna Mason good.
