Alex Pettyfer is in the running for "The Hunger Games"

British actor Alex Pettyfer recently confirmed that he was indeed trying out for the leading man part in the upcoming movie adaptation of "The Hunger Games", Peeta Mellark, after numerous rumors buzzing out about him being approached to the role. "Yes, but undecided yet, still [waiting] to see a script," Pettyfer admitted to Access Hollywood, that he already had talks with the producers.

Peeta Mellark is the love interest of 16 years-old Katniss Everdeen, the main center of "The Hunger Games" series written by Suzanne Collins. The main story of this series is about Katniss, a teenage girl living in District 12, a poor area in post-apocalyptic America. The oppressive government called The Capitol, leading the twelve districts, holds an annual televised event in which 24 children under 18 years old are randomly selected and must fight to death on the arena, with only one survivor. Katniss' 12 years old sister Prim is actually chosen in the event, but to protect her family Katniss volunteers to replace her instead. At the deathly event she meets the other 23 contenders, including Peeta, whom she fell in love and start an adventure with to reveal The Capitol's evil plans.

As I wrote in the previous post, the studio hasn't found the right actress to play Katniss either, even though the famous actresses who tried out for the role have been revealed. This movie will begin shooting in a couple of months, so I think we won't wait any longer for the official announcement. Gary Ross has been appointed to direct, as well as Billy Ray to write the screenplay. "The Hunger Games" is set to hit theatres in March 23, 2012.

Pettyfer has been grazing the big screen since about five years ago. His big role debut was "Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker" back in 2006. He was actually cast for the lead role in "Eragon", but dropped it to star in "Stormbreaker" and the role eventually went to another British actor Edward Speelers. Unfortunately the movie was a big flop, even though Pettyfer successfully became famous. This year he starred in the sci-fi action flick "I Am Number Four", with "Glee" actress Dianna Agron. The movie failed to attract critics, however, despite directed by the acclaimed DJ Carusso. Last week he premiered the modernized-version of "Beauty and the Beast" in the teen drama movie with "High School Musical" star Vanessa Hudgens, "Beastly". But again, his performance was somehow criticized, as the media already 'judged' him for 'nothing more than just a pretty face'.

Following the trend of emerged British actors in Hollywood, like the blast of Robert Pattinson back in 2008 when "Twilight" first became a phenomenon; Eddie Redmayne, who despite being an indie actor still catch our eyes; Jim Sturgess who dazzled us in 2007's The Beatles's musical movie "Across the Universe" and "21"; Nicholas Hoult who was known as her bad boy role, Tony Stonem, in British series "Skins" but now is a trending Hollywood hottie as he was chosen to play Beast/Hank McCoy in "X-Men: First Class"; and then recently "The Social Network" breakout actor Andrew Garfield is the hot stuff in United States; seems like Pettyfer is now the 'newly found' one. He's young, British, and good looking (well, he was the face of Burberry even before Emma Watson signed in), he's the type of every movie's dream actor.

That's why the studios are now racing to get him, even though his name is relatively new for all of us. He reportedly is one of the shortlisted actors to play in "The Bourne Legacy" to replace Matt Damon, along with other famous Garrett Hedlund, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, and Shia LaBeouf. He is also currently in talks to join Oscar winner Jeff Bridges and nominee Jennifer Lawrence in "The Last Apprentice", even though it hasn't been confirmed. Lastly, he is eyed for the lead role to play James Hunt, a biopic about the race car drive.

Apart from my personal fascination to British guys, I believe that Pettyfer is actually a talented actor. I just think he hasn't got the right part yet, and so his talent hasn't been developed well. I kinda hope to watch him in indie movies like Eddie Redmayne has been doing, or like how Andrew Garfield started out his career, because in indie movies we can actually get to see the genuine talent of the actor. Well, hopefully with this many opportunities come to him, it will be the right time for Pettyfer to change the bad-actor reputation.