While she did star in in "Titanic," which wound up becoming on of the biggest movies of all time, Kate Winslet has, before and since, stayed away from franchise territory. The closest she's ever come to a tentpole was probably Steven Soderbergh's "Contagion," or maybe the Aardman animation "Flushed Away," but in general, she's preferred to stick to artsier, more awards-baity fare, working with directors like Roman Polanski, Todd Haynes and Jason Reitman.
But it looks like she might have found something tempting, as Summit Entertainment reveals that Kate Winslet has joined "Divergent," the studio's adaptation of the best-selling young adult novel. With a script from "Snow White & The Huntsman" scribe Evan Daughtery, rewritten by Vanessa Taylor ("Game Of Thrones," "Hope Springs," winner of the 2012 most incongruous credits award), and Neil Burger ("The Illusionist," "Limitless") in the director's chair, the studio are clearly hoping for the film to be the next "Twilight" or "Hunger Games," and look to be landing as prestigious a name as has been involved with either series.
The plot is set in a dystopian future where people are divided in factions separated by their qualities — selflessness, intelligence, honesty, peacefulness and bravery — and focuses on a girl, Tris, who discovesr she's a Divergent, caught between multiple traits. "The Descendants" and "The Spectacular Now" star Shailene Woodley is signed on to play the lead, while Jeremy Irvine, Lucas Till and Alex Pettyfer were testing for the male lead, but Variety says that the filmmakers have decided to go older for the role.
What isn't clear is what role Winslet would play. Our quick glance at Wikipedia doesn't suggest an older female character, other than Tris' mother Natalie, but there's no indication of how big a role that is. Is there some kind of villain that Winslet might play instead? Fans of the book, please do illuminate us. At any rate, we should be finding out soonish, as the film will open on March 21, 2014.
To answer the question at the end of the article, there is one major female role other the lead and her friends. I'm talking about "Jeanine Mathews", she is the leader of the Erudite faction, a brilliant and heartless scientist who will… well, "cause problems" throughout the franchise (understatement of the year, since she is the Franchise's main villain). Let's just say that there are conspiracies in place because of Jeanine, and without wanting to spoil, she will be responsible for a lot of people dying. Once I read the news about Kate Winslet being Cast, I immediately thought she would play Jeanine. People are saying she could play the lead's mother, but I think that role is too small for such a High Profile actress.
In answer to the question at the end of the article, the mother role is important but pretty small, so probably not Winslet's role. There is a major villain-y female character (the head of the "Erudite" group), Jeanine Matthews, who would be a good fit for Winslet. She has a bigger role in the second book.
Contagion is a tentpole movie?
Let's be real they offered a truck full of money and her daughter may be a fan of the books as she is in that YA bracket. It's got nothing do with quality. Summit offer her beaucoup bucks to give the film some credibility and she gets money and a hopefully successful franchise on her resume for probably not much more than a few weeks work. Do these prestigious names attaching themselves to these types of movies really say anything about the movie quality though? I mean that Beautiful Creatures YA movie coming up has Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis and Eileen Atkins and still looks like complete and utter refried CW show crap?
"Snow White & The Huntsman" had a truly awful story and script. Chase, fight, chase, fight, chase, fight does not constitute a story. I hope Vanessa Taylor is throwing out Evan Daughtery's original script and starting fresh. Two rewrites couldn't save "Snow White."
@Kris: How so?
she lost her mind,literally.
Vanessa Taylor rewrote the screenplay? That's a good sign. Great news for Kate! Tilda Swinton has Chronicles of Narnia, Cate Blanchett has Lord of the Rings, Kate needs a franchise. 🙂 Good career move.