Not since the first talks of the Twilight adaptation has there been this much chatter about the casting and production of a film. Now, with Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games, fans everywhere are all salivating (no pun intended) to get more details about this big film adaptation.

Not long ago, director Gary Ross (Pleasantville) was announced to take on the big screen adaptation for Lionsgate, with Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) taking on the screenplay. Now that we have the crux of the pre-production lined up, we’re now getting a release date. From THR:

Lionsgate has chosen a release date for high-profile event picture The Hunger Games: March 23, 2012.

By going out in theaters in late March, Lionsgate is looking to prosper from spring break and the Easter holiday (Easter Sunday falls on April 8 in 2012). So far, Hunger Games has the March 23-25 weekend to itself.

With the internet community and a few studio execs hinting that this current season of 24 may be the last, big news is now coming out of Twentieth Century Fox’s camp, as they have just announced a film adaptation of the series.

The studio was allegedly blown away by a pitch from screenwriter Billy Ray (State of Play, Flightplan), in which Jack Bauer goes to Europe, and they have already hired him to finish the script for production. From Variety:

Script is said to have come through “24” star Kiefer Sutherland, who’s also an exec producer on the series — and is said to be eager to turn the long-running TV skein into a feature franchise.

Feature would be produced by the TV show’s key exec producers, including Sutherland. Series was created by Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow, while exec producer Howard Gordon runs the show through his Real Time Prods. banner.