Limitless director Neil Burger signed on to helm Divergent back in August of last year, and, in the months since, the project’s undergone a fairly erratic casting process. An adaptation of Veronica Roth‘s young-adult debut novel, Summit Entertainment landed on their leading lady — the on-the-rise Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) — rather early into the proceedings. The situation has been much more complicated, however, for her male counterpart: Lucas Till (X-Men First Class, Stoker), Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike), and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) are just three of the names who have been tested for this role.
The latest report, from Variety, doesn’t clear up this male-centric side of things — in fact, it interestingly says that Summit “may go older after not finding its guy with the latest readings” — but it does provide quite a coup for the opposite sex: Kate Winslet, who hasn’t appeared in a single franchise in her entire career, will play a supporting role in the film, which Summit is looking to eventually develop into a Hunger Games-like trilogy. The move has been confirmed via Summit’s official Twitter page, and, though we don’t yet know what role Winslet is circling, her involvement in any capacity certainly gives the project a boost of prestige.
Summit has already landed on a release date for Divergent: March 21st, 2014, which pretty much identically resembles the early-year slotting The Hunger Games used to such great effect in 2012. I must admit that, even as a modest fan of the Jennifer Lawrence-led franchise-starter, another similarly-themed trilogy was starting to sound like a bit much. But with Winslet on board — and with the momentum Woodley will likely gain for her turn in the supposedly excellent Sundance hit The Spectacular Now — it’s possible that this could end up being something exciting. Now we just have to wait and see who will be Woodley’s beau.
Does the casting of Winslet increase your interest in this project?