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"Elizabeth Banks has revealed that she was one of the first people to read The Hunger Games upon the book&amp;#039;s release.  The actress, who will play Effie Trinket in the upcoming film adaptation of Suzanne Collins&amp;#039;s dystopian teen trilogy, told Parade that she was always interested in the project and had eyed her role from the beginning. Banks explained: &amp;quot;I was one of the first readers of the book. I produce movies and I was looking at a similar book when the publisher recommended I read The Hunger Games. I loved it, devoured it, and then devoured Catching Fire. Then I had to wait a year for Mockingjay, which I pre-ordered from Amazon.  &amp;quot;I was really invested in the books from the get-go and had worked for Gary Ross before. So when he got the job I just emailed everybody and was like, &amp;#039;I really want to play Effie Trinket. Just know that I am out here and if you need someone, I can step in.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Banks recently said that the role of Effie is &amp;quot;so suited&amp;quot; to her and is the only part she could play.  She has described the experience of shooting the film as &amp;quot;rewarding&amp;quot; and expressed her excitement for its release.  The Hunger Games will hit theatres on March 23, 2012. Watch a teaser trailer for The Hunger Games below:   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/the-hunger-games/news/a337916/elizabeth-banks-i-was-one-of-the-first-to-read-the-hunger-games/>