How has this one not gotten made yet? Jeff Bridges is set to star in an adaptation of Lois Lowry‘s perennial young-adult classic The Giver, which every other person (or so) was made to read in fifth grade. The book tells the story of a futuristic utopia in which there is no pain, society instead embracing “Sameness.” Part of this switch requires to loss of emotion, which in turn means the loss of memory. The Receiver is employed to store all of society’s memories, as a means of leverage in making individuals make decisions that benefit the societal whole.
Jonas, a 12-year old being groomed to the Receiver position, learns from The Giver, a.k.a. the last Receiver. This mentor-ship reveals secrets not yet privy to the young boy, forcing him to make moral choices he’s not prepared to make. Lowry’s novel, published in 1993 and winner of the Newberry Medal in 1994, takes from the likes of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, George Orwell’s 1984 and Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem to name of them, but offers an originality all its own.
It certainly stayed with me as a child, forcing me to think in grays rather than in blacks and whites. Bridges will play the titular character. There’s a script from Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) lingering from the last attempt to produce the film, in 2006 through Fox and Walden Media, with Perelman set to direct as well. [The Playlist]
The project does not currently have a studio behind it.
Have you read The Giver? Will Bridges do the pivotal role justice?