While Divergent won’t land until March 2014, Lionsgate /Summit is definitely looking to ensure that they have a big film on their hands and quickly. They’ve already secured the March 20th, 2015 release date for the second book, Insurgent, and now they’ve locked down March 18th, 2016 for the third one, Allegiant. All the actors have been locked in for the trilogy aspect and there is something to be said for the quicker turnaround in films rather than the 2-3 years between, which can strain a number of issues and fans themselves.
What we’re also learning as these dates solidify is that the director of the first film, Neil Burger, will not be returning for the second installment due to the tightness of the schedule. This is similar to how Gary Ross opted out of the second Hunger Games film as Lionsgate smartly knew they had to get the next one out quickly, especially with the way star Jennifer Lawrence’s schedule was filling up. With the size of the commitment for three films overall, few directors really can do that and even then they space it out more, such as we saw with Christopher Nolan with the Batman trilogy he did.
Summit had this to say on the way things are going: “Neil Burger is a rock star and he is doing a fantastic job on Divergent. We can’t wait for you to see the film. But as amazing as Neil is he still cannot be in two places at once and thus needs to finish post production on Divergent while we gear up to start production on Insurgent. So, although Neil will continue on as part of our Divergent family as an executive producer, we sadly have to find another director for the next chapter in Veronica Roth’s fantastic series.”
Based on the novel series by Veronica Roth which stars Shailene Woodley in the lead role, which is being directed by Neil Burger. The film has a solid cast to it with Kate Winslet, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Tony Goldwyn, Ray Stevenson, Mekhi Phifer, Maggie Q, Jai Courtney, Miles Teller, Zoë Kravitz, Ansel Elgort, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Ben Lamb, Christian Madsen and Amy Newbold.
It’s set to debut on March 21st, 2014.
Plot concept: DIVERGENT is a thrilling adventure set in a future world where people are divided into distinct factions based on their personalities, Tris Prior (Woodley) is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy to destroy all Divergents, she must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it’s too late.