Back in November, we told you that Gary Ross (Pleasantville) who was vying to helm the big-screen adaptation of the first novel in Suzanne Collins‘ best selling trilogy, The Hunger Games for Lionsgate, against the likes of David Slade (30 Days of Night), Sam Mendes (American Beauty) had confirmed that he scored the director’s chair.

While the books are fairly violent and a faithful adaptation could easily garner an R rating. In January, Ross explained why he felt the movies needed to be rated PG-13:

“It’s not going to be an R-rated movie because I want the 12- and 13- and 14-year-old-fans to be able to go see it. This book means too much to too many teenagers for it not to be PG-13. It’s their story and they deserve to be able to access it completely. And I don’t think it needs to be more extreme than that. I don’t need to have a huge prosthetic budget or make this movie incredibly bloody in order for it to be just as compelling, just as scary, and just as riveting. (It’s not) an overly graphic book. Even things like the Tracker Jacker sequence, while horrific, it’s the ideas that Suzanne has created that are so harrowing.”

People have been wondering which lucky actress would score the highly coveted lead role of ‘Katniss Everdeen’ in the forthcoming big-screen adaptation. Kaya Scodelario (Clash of the Titans), Malese Jow (The Social Network), both Lyndsy Fonseca and Chloe Moretz from the Matthew Vaughn directed Kick-Ass [all seen below] are in contention for the role, but one stand-out is Hailee Steinfeld who impressed many with her recent role in the Coen Brothers’ True Grit.

MTV spoke with Steinfeld on the red carpet at the Academy Awards, and the young actress confirmed that she has met with director Gary Ross about the role. Check out the video below!

The Hunger Games is slated to hit theaters on March 23rd, 2012.