The Giver Shares Eight New Character Posters

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

The GiverIt’s going to be interesting to see if Phillip Noyce’s (Salt) adaptation of Lois Lowrey’s novel The Giver is going to find an audience. The movie fits into the larger trend of teen-centric dystopias that are so popular with franchises like The Hunger Games and Divergent, but it isn’t quite in the same league popularity wise. But that’s not going to stop The Weinstein Company from hyping the film, and to that end they’ve released eight new characters posters.

Like the most successful YA adaptations, The Giver has a substantial fan base, but this one is a bit more long-lived than its compatriots. While the already mentioned titles were massive hits right out of the gate, Lowrey’s book has been around since the early 1990s, isn’t part of a franchise, won a bunch of prestigious awards, and has actually become a staple part of the English curriculum for thousands of middle school and junior high classrooms.

While it definitely fits within the larger trend, it is also something different at the same time. I’m a bit too old to have read this in school, but I know lots of people who seem to hold this particular book in high regard, and folks have been waiting for an adaptation for a long time. Bill Cosby himself owned the rights for years and was working on bringing The Giver to the silver screen, and it has certainly attracted a big name cast, as you can see in these posters.

Academy Award-winner Jeff Bridges plays the titular Giver. In a seemingly utopian world where there is no violence, prejudice, illness, or much of anything else, he is the keeper of memories, of the history before what is called “the sameness.” As his time comes to a close, he passes all of his knowledge to…

The Giver…a young boy named Jonas (Brenton Thwaites, Oculus). As he comes of age, he receives the knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation, and discovers that things in the world may not be as ideal and fantastic as everyone thinks. Now Jonas faces a difficult choice, whether to keep his mouth shut and let everyone continue to live in peace, or to share what he knows and blow the lid off of everything.

The GiverThe rest of the cast includes Glenn Close, who appears to be in a position of power, as illustrated by the “When people have the power to choose, they choose wrong,” tag line. You can guess what she wants Jonas to do.

The GiverKatie Holmes appears to be a shill for the status quo, with her “The elders are never wrong” shtick. What a kiss ass.

The GiverOdeya Rush and…

The Giver…Cameron Monaghan appear to be younger, more of Jonas’ generation, and from their respective posters, they seem to share that tendency of many their age of questioning the powers that be and the way things are.

The GiverAlexander Skarsgard will show up in order to keep things sexy and draw in the True Blood crowd…

The Giver…and then there’s Taylor Swift, who looks really strange with brown hair. People seem to like her.

The Giver opens everywhere on August 15.