Catching Fire is set to arrive in cinemas in just over a year's time, so its no surprise to learn that Lionsgate are looking to do their casting for the Hunger Games sequel as quickly as they possibly can.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is the latest big name to be linked with the film, after the studio offered him the role of Pluto Heavensbee, the new gamemaker who steps into Seneca Crane's shoes, after the latter was rather forcibly encouraged to step down.
Whether or not Hoffman takes the role remains to be seen (and given he hasn't made a franchise movie since Mission: Impossible 3 back in 2006, it seems a tad unlikely), but it does at least give some indication of the studio's ambition for Catching Fire .
Another key role waiting to be filled is that of former tribute turn womanising reprobate, Finnick Odair, a part that was spuriously linked to Robert Pattinson earlier in the year. Garrett Hedlund and Armie Hammer are also names that have been thrown into the hat, only for the stars themselves to refute all knowledge of any such developments.
Whoever Lionsgate end up going for, they want to get a move on. New director Francis Lawrence is already having to work to an immensely tight time-frame, so the sooner he gets his cast together, the better. Catching Fire opens in the UK on 22 November 2013.
