Summit are really confident that everyone is going to see their big, juicy YA adaptation “Divergent” next month. Or they’re at least hoping that their confidence and premature announcement that a sequel is coming will encourage audiences to a buy a ticket. Either way, they’re making plans so that they’re prepared when “Divergent” becomes an (inevitable?) hit film. And they are pinning their hopes on the guy who directed “R.I.P.D.” to keep the franchise moving.
Yep, Robert Schwentke has bounced back from directing one of 2013’s biggest financial bombs and critical failures to get the gig helming “Insurgent.” With a script from Akiva Goldsman (“Batman & Robin,” “I Am Legend,” this weekend’s “Winter’s Tale“) the sequel will continue the adventures of Shailene Woodley‘s Tris who is rebelling against authority for some reason or another (we can’t keep track of these things anymore)—here’s the Amazon synopsis:
One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.
Production on the followup will begin later this year, with Summit already planting a flag on a March 20, 2015 release date. But is the studio getting ahead of themselves here? Let us know below. [Variety]
Easily the worst book of the series, an awful director, an awful writer. And as a sequel to a film that doesn't look particularly strong? Oof. This will be brutal.
They're definitely retaking the anyone can do this approach, here….
It's infuriating that a dude can make a bomb like RIPD and get work within the next year, while numerous women and minority filmmakers if they make even a sliver of the bomb that RIPD is, would be relegated to just tv for almost a decade.
YA + Schwentke + Goldsman. What could go wrong?!