Divergent Featurette Introduces Four, Plus Veronica Roth Reacts To The Movie
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In a few short weeks, the film adaptation of Divergent will open in theaters across the country. Based on author Veronica Roth’s best-selling young adult book series, Divergent is Lionsgate’s attempt to line up the next Hunger Games contender before that widely popular series ends with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part Two in 2015. Although Divergent and its subsequent sequels are best-selling novels, the property is still virtually unknown to anyone who isn’t a teenager or young adult. Lionsgate is releasing a ton of materials to change that, including the new featurette above.
A new featurette exclusive to Yahoo! Movies highlights the brawny Tobias “Four” Eaton, played by Theo James. The character of “Four” is a member of the Dauntless faction and serves as the instructor to Beatrice “Tris” Prior (Shailene Woodley). You can see that James is in killer shape, but what’s really impressive is the film’s stunt coordinator, Garrett Warren. Man, just look at that guy’s eye patch. Now you know there’s an interesting story surrounding how that happened.
Lionsgate has also released a clip of the movie that features Shailene Woodley’s “Tris” in a tank of water for a test. Her “Divergent” abilities give her a way to escape from a possible watery grave. Her character just realizes that the simulation test is not real and manages to break free.
Author Veronica Roth recently had an opportunity to watch the film adaptation and provided a review of sorts on her personal tumblr page. She praised the film, but it’s unclear if her approval will match the box office success. Roth writes:
I was completely absorbed by it. Even though I am so familiar with this story, I clearly remember grabbing the arms of my chair when Tris runs to catch the train after the Choosing Ceremony because I was nervous that she wouldn’t make it. (And then I thought to myself…YOU WROTE THE STORY, VERONICA.) It was beautifully shot — Chicago is such a gorgeous city, and to see it transformed into this futuristic wasteland was incredibly cool — and suspenseful, and the cast did a wonderful job. If I start calling people out specifically I’m just going to gush about everyone, but since Tris is very much the anchor of the series, and Four is of particular interest to many of you, I feel like I should say that Shailene Woodley as Tris and Theo James as Four are everything I hoped for (or maybe more than I dared to hope for). And we were so lucky to have Neil Burger driving this — his vision of the world, the amazing details and subtleties of it, his understanding of the story, and how seriously he took every part of it…I mean, you can tell. You can see it everywhere.
Divergent is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where people are separated into five distinct factions based on dominant personality traits. However, some are unique and cannot be classified; these people are labeled “Divergent” and have no place in society. The story follows “Tris,” who is discovered to be divergent and must figure out how to survive in her dystopian world.
Evan Daugherty (Snow White and the Huntsman) and Vanessa Taylor (Hope Springs) co-wrote the screenplay, while Neil Burger (Limitless) directed the film. Divergent also stars Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Maggie Q, Jai Courtney, Tony Goldwyn, Ashley Judd, and Mekhi Phifer. Divergent hits theaters everywhere on March 21. Take a listen to M83’s “I Need You” from the film’s soundtrack below:
