Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth Land Hunger Games Roles

By Nisha Gopalan

04/04/2011 at 02:55 PM EDT

The PEOPLE have spoken! And although they voted for Hunter Parrish, 23, to take on the role of Peeta in the big-screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins's wildly successful sci-fi story The Hunger Games, that part will be going to the just-as-hotly tipped Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right).

Hutcherson's lovesick baker-boy will compete for the affections of Katniss (to be portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence, 20) with her strapping hunting partner Gale, to be played by 21-year-old Liam Hemsworth, a.k.a. Miley Cyrus's on-again, off-again beau).

POLL: Who Should Play Jennifer Lawrence's Mentor in The Hunger Games?

The teen love triangle comes to a head in a televised, to-the-death match that finds tough-gal Katniss determining her own fate. That heated combat is where the movie, out March 23, 2012, gets its name.



With shooting to start in May, expect Hutcherson, whose Peeta is described as having "ashy blond hair that falls in waves over his forehead," to get a dye job – and maybe a perm! – pronto.