Summit Entertainment, a Lionsgate company, announced today that principal photography has commenced in Chicago on the upcoming feature film adaptation of Divergent, starring Golden Globe nominated Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Academy Award winner Kate Winslet.
The studio also announced that Ray Stevenson and Mekhi Phifer will join a stellar young cast including Maggie Q, Jai Courtney, Miles Teller, Zoë Kravitz, Ansel Elgort, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Ben Lamb, Christian Madsen, and Amy Newbold.
The futuristic action adventure, based on author Veronica Roths New York Times bestseller, will be directed by Neil Burger from a script by Vanessa Taylor. The original draft of the script was written by Evan Daugherty. Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing the project via their Red Wagon Entertainment banner along with Pouya Shahbazian. Red Wagons Rachel Shane is executive producing, alongside John J. Kelly.
Divergent is described as being 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.
Erik Feig, Lionsgate Motion Picture Groups President of Production, and Gillian Bohrer, Lionsgates SVP of Production, are overseeing the project for the studio. Summit will release the film theatrically in North America on Friday, March 21, 2014.
