IN the future, everyone on television will have ridiculous hair. Also, the slaughter of teenagers and children will serve as state sanctioned entertainment.
That's the premise of The Hunger Games, opening today.
At the centre of the slaughter is Cato, equal parts swift hunter and schoolyard bully and played with memorable ferocity by West Vancouver's Alexander Ludwig. But sitting in a posh Vancouver hotel, it's difficult to reconcile the neck-breaking killer of the dystopian film with the humble young actor talking about his mother.
"The best mother ever," Ludwig assures me.
Ludwig, 19, speaks with great enthusiasm and surprising sympathy about Cato.
"All he's ever known is killing and how to be a killer," Ludwig explains. "Maybe this guy just got the bad end of the draw."
Ludwig says he was drawn to the complexity of the film, which takes place at the intersection of reality television and totalitarian politics, with liberal doses of Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, and George Orwell thrown into the mix.
"I love playing different characters who are opposite to me, and characters I can really dig my teeth into and experience the dark side of humanity," Ludwig says.
Fresh off his appearance in Race to Witch Mountain, Ludwig was on his way to Europe when he first heard about Suzanne Collins' best-selling novels.
"I started reading them and I fell in love with them immediately," he says of the books, which formed a large part of his European vacation. "I devoted my time to seeing the sights, experiencing the culture, partying, and getting ready for The Hunger Games."
Ludwig says he wasn't sure if he would play Peeta, the timid son of a butcher, but was glad he got to wield the sword as Cato.
"When you're (playing) such a psychotic character and such a twisted and tormented soul, you really have to justify, in your own head personally, all the things that person's doing to make it real. And that was obviously hard," he says.
His job was made easier by director Gary Ross, best known for writing the Tom Hanks vehicle Big and helming Pleasantville, which injected intelligence and lust into 1950s sitcoms.
Like the director of a silent film, Ross would offer tutelage and emotional insight during the filming of scenes, according to Ludwig.
"He'd talk you through what your character is feeling," Ludwig says. The transition from page to screen can be tumultuous. Alan Moore disowned the adaptation of his graphic novel Watchmen, and author Truman Capote offered a famous case of indigestion when asked for his thoughts about the film version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, saying simply: "It made me want to throw up."
The journey of The Hunger Games from book to blockbuster was considerably smoother, according to Ludwig.
"She put her heart and soul in the books, and we wanted to do her wonderfully well-written novels justice," he says. "I would argue it's the most true portrayal of a book into a film, ever."
Credited as a screenwriter and executive producer, Collins appeared frequently on set, according to Ludwig.
"Her and Gary were like a tag team," he says. Besides understanding Cato's mentality, Ludwig says he worked to understand Collins.
"I was studying her interviews and I was really trying to understand what message she wants the books to be sending," he says.
The crux of the film appears to be a dictatorship rationing out just enough hope to suppress rebellion, but Ludwig is quick to point out the film's other message.
"Even though it is a dark concept, it speaks to the most positive of messages, which is there's hope in all of us, and there's hope in all of humanity and it also touches on love and how far people will go for love."
