In an early glimpse of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, Julianne Moore as District 13’s President Coin sits alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman as head gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. 

The Hunger Games was the last production Hoffman worked on before his death in February and, in a new taster for the next instalment of the mega franchise, director Francis Lawrence says the filmmakers won’t turn to CGI to finish his part.

"We finished the majority of his work. I think he might have had eight to 10 days left on our schedule. In most of those scenes, Phil didn't have any dialogue," Lawrence said.

"We are going to put him into those scenes, but we're only using real footage. We’re not creating anything digital or a robotic version of him."

Hoffman was working on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 when he died. There were reports that he would be digitally recreated in a major scene he was yet to film.

For Mockingjay - Part 1, however, producer Nina Jacobson said the team worked around the existing footage. "We had to rewrite the dialogue scenes that he had left and there’s no question that shooting those scenes is painful without him," she said.

"We might give a line of Plutarch's to Haymitch or Effie, but only in circumstances that we are able to do that without undermining the intent of the scene."

Glimpses from the forthcoming epic, out in Australia on November 20, are on TheHungerGamesExclusive.com and include various stills from the movie and a video interview with Julianne Moore, who makes her debut in the franchise. Woody Allen reprises his role as the one-off mentor Haymitch Abernathy. 

In the film, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) becomes the reluctant leader of a rebellion against the Capitol, struggling with trust and the loyalties of those around her. 

Francis Lawrence has also revealed that the stress surrounding Katniss is "ratcheted up". 

"She's barely able to hold it together," he said. "That's compounded by the fact that she is now really distrustful of everybody around her... She's very, very fragile and very, very angry."

smh.com.au

Coldplay announce one-off Australian show at Enmore Theatre

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who split from his wife of 10 years Gwyneth Paltrow in March, will soothe his broken heart under the Australian sun with a promotional visit and small public concert on June 19.

But Martin’s British supergroup has picked a surprise venue for its one-off gig: Sydney's Enmore Theatre which has a capacity of just 1600. Coldplay played to over 200,000 people on its 2012 Australian tour, in front of crowds of at least 40,000 fans at stadium venues.

No dates have yet been announced for a full Australian tour.

The band's visit, from June 16 to 21 which will promote its new album Ghost Stories, was announced on Friday morning by the band's record label Warner Music and promoter Live Nation.

Unusually stringent security measures have been announced to counter ticket scalping, including personalised digital tickets (with the buyer's name printed) which will be cross-checked against credit card details and photo ID before entry to the Enmore Theatre.

Fans will only be allowed to buy a maximum of two tickets, which will only be issued on the day of the show, by email.

The album received mixed reviews worldwide but our music reviewer Bernard Zuel also noted Ghost Stories “was almost the quintessential breakup album”.

Zuel wrote: “Not some bitter slag off of the ex, Gwyneth Paltrow, in the style of Phil Collins or Marvin Gaye but an album of sadness and yearning and real emptiness at the core of this bloke’s life.”

Live Nation teased “a special announcement” yesterday afternoon sending social media in overdrive. Highest on music fans’ wishlist seemed to be Miley Cyrus although a joint Beyonce/Jay Z tour was a popular request. A few wags wanted to see Jay Z and Solange on stage together. Oddly Coldplay did not occur to many fans, despite the flood of media atention on Ghost Stories.

Coldplay is one of the biggest-selling bands of the last 15 years, routinely topping the charts around the world with new album releases and an estimated 70 million album sales, although it doesn’t enjoy quite the same dominance with singles.

The Ghost Stories tour begins in Los Angeles on Monday May 19, the day the album is released.

COLDPLAY: ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY – THURSDAY 19 JUNE

My Live Nation pre-sale begins 2pm Monday May 19 with a fixed allocation

GENERAL PUBLIC TICKETS ON SALE 10AM TUESDAY 20 MAY, VIA COLDPLAY.COM AND LIVENATION.COM

smh.com.au

The Hunger Games: Mockinjay trailer released

Beyonce, Jay Z, Solange move on

VIDEO: smh.com.au

Beyonce, Jay Z and Solange say they are moving on since a leaked video showed Solange attacking Jay Z in an elevator.

‘‘As a result of the public release of the elevator security footage from Monday, May 5th, there has been a great deal of speculation about what triggered the unfortunate incident,’’ they said in a statement to the Associated Press.

‘‘But the most important thing is that our family has worked through it.

‘‘Jay and Solange each assume their share of responsibility for what has occurred. They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public.

‘‘They both have apologised to each other and we have moved forward as a united family.’’

The website TMZ posted the three-minute video on Monday showing Solange, Beyonce’s sister, attacking Jay Z in front of Beyonce after the Met Gala.

‘‘The reports of Solange being intoxicated or displaying erratic behaviour throughout that evening are simply false,’’ the statement continued.

‘‘At the end of the day families have problems and we’re no different. We love each other and above all we are family. We’ve put this behind us and hope everyone else will do the same.’’

The hotel says it has fired the person who recorded the video.

AP

Bryan Cranston teases Hopkins team-up

Heisenberg and Hannibal Lecter might be teaming up, according to Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston.

The US actor, who shot to fame for his role as science-teacher-turned-drug-lord Walter White, and Hopkins have been talking about a collaboration after the Silence of the Lambs star wrote a glowing fan letter, Cranston told KIIS FM on Friday.

‘‘We’re looking for something to work together on and we’ve since become friends,’’ Cranston said.Hopkins said in the letter to Cranston last year that he’d watched the entire Breaking Bad series in two weeks.

In it, he praised Cranston’s performance as ‘‘the best acting I have seen - ever.’’‘‘There is so much smoke blowing and sickening bullshit in this business,’’ he wrote.

‘‘But this work of yours is spectacular.’’Cranston, who is currently performing on Broadway, revealed he has another high profile fan in the form of Hugh Jackman.

‘‘Hugh Jackman was in my dressing room after the play,’’ Cranston says.

‘‘He was like, ‘Oh my god, you’re a god to me!’’’

Cranston is currently starring in the Godzilla reboot alongside Juliette Binoche, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ken Watanabe.

After that, he’ll voice a character in the third instalment of th Kung-Fu Panda series.‘‘(I’m) surprising people, and I’m glad to do that,’’ he said.

AAP

Emily Blunt in tears in front of Tom Cruise

British actress Emily Blunt sobbed in front of co-star Tom Cruise on the set of the new film Edge of Tomorrow.

Cruise told the actress to ‘‘stop being a wuss’’ when Blunt broke down at the prospect of wearing a 38.5 kilogram suit of armour for five months, the actress says.

‘‘The first time I put it on I cried,’’ Blunt says.‘‘I remember Tom was there to see how the fitting went.‘‘I’m not really a crier, but I felt completely overwhelmed that I was gonna have five months of this.

‘‘We put it on and he said, ’How are you doing? You OK?’’’Blunt burst into tears and said, ‘‘I wasn’t really expecting it to be this heavy.’’

But she adds Cruise managed the situation well, telling his co-star, ‘‘Come on, stop being such a wuss!’’

WENN