RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) ? Fans of "The Hunger Games" are already turning up in North Carolina, seeking out places where the movie was shot, from old-growth forests to an abandoned mill town. [...] the tourism industry is prepared to cash in on them, with everything from hotel packages and zip lines tours, to re-enactments of scenes from the film and lessons in survival skills. The movie, which opens this weekend and is expected to be a box office smash, is based on a best-selling book about a post-apocalyptic world where teenagers compete to the death in fighting games. The village is private property, and the local sheriff's department is working with private security guards to keep people away, concerned about liability if someone gets hurt. [...] Pam Lewis, film commissioner in the western part of the state when Lionsgate, the film company, was scoping out locations, found a 22,000-acre forest of old-growth trees in Asheville's watershed, and that's where the movie's arena scenes were filmed. For more adventurous visitors, a company called Hunger Games Fan Tours offers day and weekend trips to waterfalls and other spots in Transylvania County. Promotions include a "Walk Like a Katniss Everdeen" package that combines a stay at Cumberland Falls Bed and Breakfast Inn with hiking at Chimney Rock State Park, and "The Capitol Experience" at Grand Bohemian Hotel, where the biggest adventure is a hot stone massage. Potential buyers wondering about the real life-and-death stories that once unfolded here need only look at the Coca-Cola sign in front of the company store, which has a shotgun hole in it.
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