Hunger Games Donald Sutherland President Snow

Donald Sutherland has officially been cast in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games as President Snow, the ruler of Panem. Lionsgate announced Sutherland’s casting in a press release this morning. Although Snow mostly lurks around the outskirts of the first volume of Games, he is unquestionably the series’ main puppet master (and hey, Sutherland starred in a film called The Puppet Masters!) A quietly malevolent figure who is shrouded in secrecy, Snow was described in the books as a thin and unassumingly small man — which aren’t quite the words that come to mind when you consider the 6’4” Sutherland. Still, the actor has certainly earned his epic-enigmatic bona fides — remember his Mister X in JFK? — and it should be interesting to see him play off Jennifer Lawrence’s spunk Katniss Everdeen. The Hunger Games is currently in production, and is currently slated for a March 23, 2012 release in theaters.

Read more:

First look at Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in ‘The Hunger Games’

‘Hunger Games’ Central

‘Hunger Games’: Meet the Cast!