Unlike the Giver we all know, there’s no quickly skimming through this before third-period English.

As the first signs would suggest, Lois Lowry‘s widely-circulated sci-fi novel The Giver, a classic of many 9th-grade syllabi, is on the cusp of finally getting its cinematic treatment. Don’t ask me why it took so long — instead, read from Variety that it’s happening with The Weinstein Company, and Walden Media who have made moves to nab the participation of Phillip Noyce and Jeff Bridges to direct and star, respectively. While Lebowski has either been attached or connected for years now, also as a producer — probably because he looks so much like the guy on the cover — finding the director has been less of a consistent task.

Now it’s likely down to Noyce, who will be working with a screenplay from House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman — but with no start date. Despite a (possible) helmer, star, and studio, The Giver goes on without a good idea of when it’ll come down the pipeline.

Still, it’s not hard to imagine you know the plot: In a bland future with little conflict, a 12-year-old boy named Jonas is assigned as the Receiver of Memory, a large responsibility in his community that comes with a soul-selling price. (Something leads me to think younger readers have a clearer memory than those of a higher age.) As is pointed out by Variety, Lowry‘s novel has a less action-oriented bent than something such as The Hunger Games — it makes it a riskier commodity, but maybe a more interesting one at that.

Noyce has a filmography of action films, however, a history that would lead me to think this Giver has more in common with Suzanne Collins than that paperback tome. Only time will tell.

Is Noyce a right pick for The Giver? What might he bring to this property?