Variety is reporting that Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist) is in talks to direct Summit’s Divergent with filming planned to start in March for a release in early 2014. The film will be based on Veronica Roth’s novel, which is described as follows:
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtueCandor (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 isshe 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 to determine who her friends really areand where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating 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 a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
Summit also has rights to the sequel “Insurgent,” released in May. The untitled third book in the trilogy is due out in fall 2013.
Red Wagon topper Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing with Pouya Shabazian of FinePrint Productions. Evan Daugherty (Snow White and the Huntsman) wrote the script.
Burger was previously attached to direct Sony’s video game adaptation Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and recently signed on to helm an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s short story Animal Rescue.
