Now that we have a release date (March 21, 2014), a director (Neil Burger), producers (Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher), and a writer (Evan Daugherty) for the movie, it was only a matter of time before they got to the casting part of pre-production. And according to Variety, Shailene Woodley, known for her role as George’s Clooney’s headstrong oldest daughter Alexandra King in The Descendents as well as Amy Juergens in the TV series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, is up for the role of Tris Prior, our stubborn, selfish, brave lead character.
Shailene Woodley is in final negotiations to star in the Summit’s “Divergent,” an adaptation of 24-year-old author Veronica Roth’s young-adult novel that has drawn close comparisons to Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” series.
Now, I took liberties in saying that she’s up for the role of Tris as Variety actually doesn’t state that, but honestly, there are only a handful of other female characters in the book, and none really deserving of Shailene’s talent. Besides, when it comes to casting, they usually look for the leads first, right?
With Summit Entertainment’s Twilight series ending this November, it’s not a wonder they want to get started on another successfully YA franchise. We can only hope that they’ll treat it as Lionsgate has treated The Hunger Games – with utmost respect for the fanbase and the books themselves. With Shailene, it’s definitely a start in the right direction.
Some of you may think, “But she’s not even blond!” Well, consider for the moment that hair color can be changed. Hmm… wait a minute, it can be changed! I’ve given you a visual example of Shailene as a blond just to ease your tempered minds.
Does that help? I hope so, because aside from hair color, I believe she would make an excellent Tris.
Summit is planning to start production in March with the aim of releasing the pic in the first quarter of 2014.
With her show “The Secret Life of an American Teenager” coming to an end, the Paradigm and Principato-Young repped Woodley looks to be ready to make the jump to leading-lady status.
Besides “Divergent,” Woodley is also in talks to star as Mary Jane Watson in Sony’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
Probably the one concern I have about doing both Divergent and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is her being able to film both, as both movies are scheduled for a 2014 release, with Spider-Man scheduled for a May release. What’s also interesting is that neither character sport her normally caramel-colored hair.
What do you think of Shailene playing Tris? Sound off in the comments below.
(Source: Variety)
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