Jennifer Lawrence Turns 21, Appears in New ‘Hunger Games’ Photo

Rising young actress Jennifer Lawrence, who recently recieved an Academy Award nomination for her lead role in the indie flick, Winter’s Bone, celebrates her 21st birthday today.

To ring in the milestone B-day, we decided to share a relecently released still of Lawrence during the production of her highly anticipated upcoming film, The Hunger Games.

Based on Suzanne Collins’ best selling science fiction/action novel, the forth coming movie tells the tale of a dystopic future and the annual “Hunger Games,” a government controlled fight to the death on live television.

Playing the role of Katniss Everdeen, one of the “games'” participants, Lawrence joins a cast that includes Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz, Toby Jones, Donald Sutherland and more.

Although The Hunger Games isn’t slated to hit theaters until next year, Jennifer’s co-star Elizabeth Banks recently revealed that the movie will be well worth the wait:

“We’re almost done,” Banks told ComingSoon.net in an exclusive interview. “We’ve got a little under a month left. It’s very exciting. We’re really making a provocative movie that’s also highly entertaining. It’s gonna be fun. It’s really great to make something that you know people are excited about and also that you know is gonna deliver. I really think the fans are gonna love it.”

The first installment of The Hunger Games film trilogy arrives in theaters on March 23, 2012. The second film in the post-apocalyptic series, Catching Fire, will arrive about 20 months later on November 22, 2013.

For those of you that have read both the Twilight and Hunger Games series, which is better and why?