On the even of ‘The Hunger Games’ midnight release, Josh and Liam share their gratitude towards the fans!

Director Gary Ross sat down with Collider to talk ‘The Hunger Games’ aesthetic, deleted scenes, the sequel, and more:

I would imagine that this is going to be a big hit and fans are gonna really love this thing. Have you signed on officially for the next film?

Ross: I am attached to the next film and I’m intending to do it, I haven’t had a chance to think about it yet. So many people ask me adaptation questions or ‘Who’s gonna play so-and-so?’ I literally finished this movie Tuesday at midnight, I finished color timing, and then I went into the junket a day later, so it’s not like I’ve had a chance to think about Catching Fire but yeah it’s my intention to do the next one. They’ve asked me to do so.

I know you’re not thinking about the next one yet, but do you envision the next one being a similar aesthetic?

Ross: I think that there may be some aesthetic departures from what I did here, but I don’t wanna talk about them yet not because I’m being evasive, but just because they’re so half-baked I wouldn’t be doing myself justice in the process if I talked about them prematurely, but I think there may be some differences, yeah.

I definitely wanna ask you about deleted scenes, did you lose a lot of stuff?

Ross: No, there weren’t many scenes that I shot that were cut. There were some things from the book that I wanted to put in that I couldn’t, like the Avox subplot, where they came from, things like that. There weren’t many scenes [that I cut], there were a few scenes, but I don’t kind of believe in the whole ‘Director’s Cut’ thing, because this is the director’s cut, the thing I’m doing. There isn’t another version of the movie that I would’ve done, this is my version of the movie that I really intended to do. I think there’ll be a lot of cool supplemental materials on the DVD, but I don’t think I’ll be putting in other scenes that got dropped.

For the full interview visit Collider

Woody Harrelson sat down with Moviefone to talk ‘The Hunger Games’ and his character Haymitch. He also comments on Elizabeth Banks comments on Effie is crushing on Haymitch, and not giving advice to Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson:

You got to work with Elizabeth Banks and annoy the heck out of her.
[Laughs] Yes. Did you talk to her?

Yes. And she said she worked out a whole backstory between your characters where Effie is crushing on Haymitch and Haymitch wants nothing to do with her.
That’s so funny she said that! I just thought we had a little spite for each other. Like, I look at her as just this highfalutin dame in the Capitol who has no sense of reality or what’s going on out in the districts. Haymitch is hard on her. That’s not so much in the book, but it just felt right at the time. I haven’t heard her side of it, which intrigues me.

Well, there are sequels, so you can explore that side of things. And she did say that in real-life, she has a crush on you.
[Grinning.] I wish she could have said something earlier!

You never took Jennifer Lawrence or Josh Hutcherson aside and gave them any career advice?
No, I don’t feel like the kind of guy to tender advice on much of anything. I do sometimes lecture people about what they’re eating, but that’s only if they ask me. So any other subject, I don’t feel much qualified to talk on. Certainly those guys don’t need any help from me about acting or handling their career. That would be the only other thing I could talk to them about. They seem to be doing pretty good.

What do you think is the message of the movie?
I think it is about raising people’s political awareness and it definitely has some issues with authority, which has some relevance to our present form of government. Although the one in the movie is a much more extreme form, I think it’s a pretty powerful message. That’s one of the reasons I think it resonates not just with kids, but with everybody.

For the full interview visit Moviefone

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Isabelle Fuhrman and producer Nina Jacobson talked to Extra at the screening of ‘The Hunger Games’ in New York City earlier this week, watch below: