Taylor Kitsch: I’m not playing Finnick in ‘Catching Fire’
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With casting for the second installment of ‘The Hunger Games’ franchise underway, fans of the dystopian sci-fi series have been breathlessly debating who will play an integral character in ‘Catching Fire.’
Finnick Odair, described by author Suzanne Collins as an Adonis-like womanizer, first appears in ‘Catching Fire’ and has a complex relationship with heroine Katniss Everdeen. So admirers of the series were thrown into a tizzy this week when E! News reported that filmmakers had narrowed down the casting to three heartthrobs: Taylor Kitsch, Armie Hammer and Garrett Hedlund.
But you can knock one of those dreamboats off the list, because Kitsch says he won’t be joining the cast of the mega-successful film series.
‘Not going to happen,’ the 31-year-old actor wrote in an email on Wednesday. Kitsch, who is coming off the poor box office performance of the big-budget films ‘John Carter’ and ‘Battleship,’ would seem to have fit the bill for the athletic, good-looking character.
As for ‘The Lone Ranger’ star Hammer and ‘TRON: Legacy’ lead Hedlund, the studio behind the franchise, Lionsgate, said it would not confirm, deny or comment on any casting in progress.
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--Amy Kaufman