If the plot of The Hunger Games, the first book in Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular young-adult trilogy of the same name, sounds brutal—24 children, ages 12 to 18, fight to the death as “tributes” to a tyrannical government that would make Caligula blush—you should see the fandemonium around its March 23 leap to the big screen. “I read all three books in five days,” says the film’s leading man, Josh Hutcherson, 19, who plays Peeta, the handsome tribute in love with Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss. “I’ve never read a character I’ve connected with more—I am Peeta.” Director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) and Collins, who together wrote the script, agree. “He’s so unbelievably charming,” says Ross. “When he auditioned, Suzanne and I looked at each other. We’d both been knocked out.”