Neil Burger To Direct ‘Divergent’

Neil Burger, the director of LIMITLESS is in early talks to direct the latest franchise based on a series of Young Adult novels with DIVERGENT. The film will be based on the books by Veronica Roth, which currently has two entries out with a third one on the way in 2013. Summit Entertainment are producing the film, which they are probably hoping will launch a new franchise for them after the end of THE TWILIGHT SAGA. The official synopsis is as follows:

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

I hope her secret is that she is a hermaphrodite. That’s the only thing that could make this seem interesting to me. I’m not saying the book isn’t good, because I haven’t read it, but I do think it’s a mistake for a company to just try and emulate the success of another franchise. After Harry Potter went big we found loads of pretenders arrive that were supposed to start new franchises and failed miserably, no matter how good their source material was. THE SEEKER: THE DARK IS RISING, ERAGON, STORMBREAKER, and LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS all managed just one film despite being based on series of novels and often leaving an open ending. Even the fiery symbol on the cover of DIVERGENT screams THE HUNGER GAMES.

Source: First Showing