According to a report by Deadline yesterday, Summit Entertainment has set a release date for the movie adaptation of Veronica Roth’s novel Divergent: March 21, 2014.
Divergent was first published in February 2011. Timing couldn’t have been better; it was six months after the release of Mockingjay, the last book in The Hunger Games trilogy, and readers were craving more dystopian fiction. Divergent quickly made the New York Times Bestseller list and has stayed there since (and was later joined by its sequel, Insurgent). It also won the Goodreads Choice Awards for Favorite Book for 2011 and Best Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction.
For those not familiar with the story, Divergent follows Beatrice Prior (later shortened to Tris), who lives in a dystopian future where society is divided into five factions. Each citizen must undergo a test at age 16 to determine which faction they would best fit into, but the decision is ultimately up to them. When Beatrice takes her test, she learns that she is divergent -- she could easily fit into several different factions. She is warned that this is dangerous and she can’t tell anyone, but can still choose a faction. She ends up in the faction she least expected, and the book follows her through initiation.
Shailene Woodley, best known for The Descendants and The Secret Life of the American Teenager, has already been confirmed as Tris. No other casting decisions have been confirmed, but Kate Winslet has also reportedly signed on (though it’s unclear who she would be playing). I Am Number Four star Alex Pettyfer was rumored to have signed on as Tris’s love interest, Four, but there is no confirmation of that either.
Hattiesburg residents can pick up copies of Divergent or Insurgent at Books a Million at Turtle Creek Crossing, and see the movie at The Grand 18 in March of next year.
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