I’ve been reading The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. One book to go. It’s been very fun. I was turned on to the books by the full movie preview which was released in November. The movie will be in theaters on March 23^rd, 2012.

But since I’ve read the books, I’ve come to realize there are differences between the book and the preview. I outline them here.

1. The fence that “protects” District 12 is not barbed wire and so open as shown, but rather a chain link fence topped with barbed wire.

2. There is no time where Gale throws something in the air in order to disturb birds so that Katniss can hit one with an arrow.

3. Obviously some of the dialogue has changed. You can’t fit the entire book into a movie! So there’s nowhere in the book Katniss has to tell Gale that twenty-four go in and only one comes out.

4. In the book when she’s all prettied up for the Capitol crowd, she’s dressed in an outfit that is literally on fire. The preview does not show a dress like that.

5. In the preview there’s a scene where Katniss seems surprised she hit the middle of the target and thus got the attention of some of the Gamemakers. She does end up surprising them, but not for hitting a target dead on. And hitting the target would never have surprised her. She did need some time to get used to the training room’s better bow and arrow equipment, though.

6. Around the 2:10 mark it appears she gets the mockingjay pin from her little sister Prim. In the book she got it from a pseudo-friend, the mayor’s daughter, Madge Undersee.

7. The gesture she receives from the people of District 12 is the three middle fingers of the left hand touched to the mouth then up. The video shows the right hand being used.

8. The preview shows a determined Katniss racing off the podium to grab some supplies. In the book she was distracted when first leaving the podium because she had made eye contact with Peeta, who shook his head, indicating she shouldn’t try to get supplies since that’d be dangerous.

9. The preview shows her grabbing a backpack and running. Since in reality she got a late start off the podium, when she was about to grab a backpack another kid was there to grab it, too. That kid got killed, then Katniss took it and ran.

10. The backpack is supposed to be orange.

Maybe you’ve spotted some other differences?

It doesn’t look like they’ve changed things from the book as much as the Percy Jackson movie so kudos to the makers. Since it appears to closely follow the book, I think it’ll be a great movie.