The Hunger GamesGranted, it's not much, but we now have our first look at some of the footage from The Hunger Games, Gary Ross's big screen adaptation of the wildly popular young-adult book trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

The clip debuted at last night's MTV Video Music Awards giving hungry fans a feel for how effectively Jennifer Lawrence can pull off her Katniss transformation and how worthy Ross and 2nd unit director Steven Soderbergh will be for capturing Collins's dystopian world of governmental control.

Many fans were disappointed at the news that the 21-year-old Lawrence, a relative unknown at the time, would assume the role of the 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen. Many fans of the story were hoping for a more well-established (and younger) bad-ass to step behind the bow and arrow. Those fears were partly allayed back in May when the Winter's Bone star made an appearance in full Katniss glory for an Entertainment Weekly magazine article.

For the uninitiated, here's a rundown of the film's plot: In a dystopian future America is now Panem, a nation made up of twelve impoverished districts, all ruled by a militant capitol where technology and excess are a way of life. Every year the capitol holds a televised battle royal, where one male and female teenager from the twelve districts must battle to the death for the pleasure of capitol. When a young hunter from District 12 named Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) sacrifices herself to save her little sister from the games, she embarks on a brave fight for survival that could change a nation.

Check out the teaser video below, but don't expect to cut a lot of meat from it. It's mostly just a visual style piece, but we do get a pretty good sense of how Lawrence will be as Katniss… including her signature bow and arrow move. And watch it till the very end where we're treated to a hint of Rue's melodic whistle.

The Hunger Games, which also stars Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks, and Liam Hemsworth is slated for a March 23 opening next year.

Also, it looks like Lionsgate has released what appears to be the making of a viral promotional site for the film. We call it that because there's really nothing yet on the site save for a large screen-filling distorted image with a page title of "The Capital" and a small headline and twitter link in the lower corner. More is sure to come later so, bookmark it, tweet it to your twitter feeds, and stay tuned. Click the image below to go to the Hunger Games viral site:

The Hunger Games Viral Site