Neil Burger’s Divergent Adds Downton Abbey’s Theo James
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I’ve never watched Downton Abbey, but the people seem to enjoy it for some reason. One of the period drama’s actors, Theo James, has landed the male lead in Summit Entertainment’s upcoming science fiction film, Divergent. Described as a “dystopian thriller,” Divergent is based on Veronica Roth’s bestselling young adult novel.
At the moment, James can be seen in the CBS police drama Golden Boy, and he joins a cast that already includes Shailene Woodley (The Spectacular Now), Jai Courteny (A Good Day to Die Hard), Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight), Kate Winslett (Titanic), Ray Stevenson (Thor), Maggie Q (Nikita), and Zoe Kravitz (After Earth). Limitless director Neil Burger takes the helm to film the screenplay from Vanessa Taylor. The whole shebang begins shooting in April in Chicago.
Set in the future, Divergent is set in a world where the citizens are segregated into different factions depending on their various personality types. It is decided that some people are “Divergent,” and are thus habitually unable to fit into any group. Tris Prior (Woodley) is one of these, and “when she discovers a conspiracy to destroy all Divergents, she must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it’s too late.”
James will play a character named Tobias “Four” Eaton. He is the leader of the Dauntless, or brave, faction, and Tris’s “intense yet charismatic instructor.” Not to mention her main love interest, who apparently has deep-set eyes and long eyelashes. The nickname Four refers to his number of fears, four, which is much lower than the average 10 to 15 held by most people. He’s scared of heights, small spaces, his abusive father, and shooting a woman who could be his mother. You can bet that all of these will make an appearance in the film.
Divergent is the first book in a trilogy, and Summit has penciled futuristic action adventure in for a March 21, 2014 release.
