Close up: Is Hunger Games the new Twilight?

The big story With the John Carter fiasco rumbling on Hollywood was desperate for some good news, and it duly came in the slinky form of Jennifer Lawrence and Hunger Games . The set of novels by Suzanne Collins have been touted as the new Twilight and – to all astonishment – have been turned into a rather good film, if you believe Xan Brooks , our man at the first press preview. As the week wore on, it became clear that The Hunger Games was looking at a serious pile of cash when it would finally be released – perhaps even beating the first Twilight film's opening weekend mark of $69m in 2008. Fortunately, as is their way, the Guide had got in quickly and interviewed Lawrence last weekend – and she had little truck with the Twilight comparison: "Both the content and the story are completely different." That's us told then. In the news Michael Bay is betraying Ninja Turtles, says Michelangelo voice actor Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four forecast for Hollywood remake Tom Hanks refutes 'racist' label after blackface video emerges Woody Allen's latest film renamed To Rome with Love Mandela the movie: Idris Elba gives short shrift to South African actors John Carter set to lose Disney $200m On the blog Kill Keith: Cheggers' horror is a film to die for Reel history – Black Death should be burned at the stake Clip joint: Siren songs How Iron Sky fell to Earth David Cox on We Bought a Zoo: why displaying animals can be a grizzly business Why Wes Anderson's car ads are sellouts 21 Jump Street gets off to a flying start at the US box office Watch and listen Film Weekly podcast – Paolo Sorrentino on This Must Be the Place Wild Bill: watch the trailer The 10 biggest box office flops of all time – in pictures We Bought A Zoo: 'A lightweight redemption tale doped to its eyeballs' - video Dark Tide trailer: will Halle Berry sink or swim? The imposters: pirated film posters – in pictures Further reading John Cusack interview: 'I'm not a scenester. I'm out for a few months, then I disappear' Why is Susan Hill pleading poverty when The Woman in Black's film adaptation took £20m in the UK? Dexter Fletcher: the film that changed my life Act Of Valour "shows that the US military should stay out of the movies" Jason Solomons on Tilda Swinton's Film on the Rocks festival in Thailand In the paper Friday's G2 Film & Music features interviews with Lenny Kravitz, who shows up in Hunger Games , Olympia Dukakis, star of Cloudburst , which opens the 26th BFI London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival this weekend, and Jeffrey Tambor, who discusses the acting workshop he's been taking to South By Southwest for the last five years. In Saturday's Guide John Patterson writes on Iranian documentary This Is Not A Film , which chronicles the house arrest of director Jafar Panahi. Something to look forward to Mike Figgis will be appearing in conversation with Simon Hattenstone this Saturday as part of the Guardian's Open Weekend. A British film-maker who made his feature debut with Stormy Monday in 1988, Figgis's other work includes the Hollywood thriller Internal Affairs , the Oscar-winning Leaving Las Vegas and experimental split-screen drama Timecode . While weekend tickets have now sold out, tickets for the Figgis event can still be purchased online. See here for more details. And finally • Follow @guardianfilm on Twitter • ... and like us on Facebook