It's been over a decade since Wes Bentley wept at the quiet majesty of dancing trash but a string of flops since his performance in American Beauty have kept his career from truly taking off. However, Bentley has now landed a supporting role in one of the biggest films of 2012. Lionsgate has announced that Bentley will play head gamemaker Seneca Crane in Gary Ross' adaptation of The Hunger Games. This is real Hunger Games casting news as opposed to yet another "Unknown Actor Cast as District X Tribute Who Probably Has No Lines in the Film Anyway" (which is why I stopped writing up those stories after the first couple of announcements). I haven't read the novel yet but I assume that the gamemaker of The Hunger Games is a somewhat relevant role.
Hit the jump for the press release. The Hunger Games stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth. The film opens March 23, 2012.
Here's the press release:
WES BENTLEY CAST AS SENECA CRANE IN LIONSGATE’S THE HUNGER GAMES
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 05, 2011- Lionsgate® and the filmmakers of THE HUNGER GAMES are pleased to announce that actor Wes Bentley (AMERICAN BEAUTY, GHOST RIDER) has been cast in the role of Seneca Crane in the much anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ worldwide smash hit novel.
Bentley joins a cast of talented young actors - Jennifer Lawrence as series heroine Katniss Everdeen with Willow Shields as little sister Primrose, and Josh Hutcherson, who was cast as Peeta Mellark, with Liam Hemsworth in the role of Gale Hawthorne. Paula Malcomson will be playing Katniss and Primrose’s mother. It was also announced that Elizabeth Banks has signed on for the part of Katniss’ pre-games handler Effie Trinket.
Bentley is represented by WME and Untitled Entertainment.
About The Role
Seneca Crane is the “Head Gamemaker” of the 74th Hunger Games, in which heroine Katniss Everdeen and childhood acquaintance Peeta Mellark are forced to compete against one another and 22 other young people in a life-threatening survival setting after Katniss bravely volunteers herself to enter the arena in the place of her younger sister.
About The Film
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.
Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
THE HUNGER GAMES will be directed by Gary Ross, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. Collins’ best-selling novel, which has over 3 million copies in print in the United States alone, is the first in a trilogy of novels which have developed a global following.
Lionsgate will release “The Hunger Games” on March 23, 2012.