It’s a big day for news of Young Adult adaptations, with word on a Mortal Instruments** prequel and some new casting info on dystopian sci-fi hopeful Divergent. Ashley Judd has signed on to the film, which kicked off shooting last week in Chicago.
Divergent, adapted from Veronica Roth’s novel, is set on a future Earth where society is divided up into groups according to certain human traits. Everyone is sorted into the appropriate group at 16, but Tris (Shailene Woodley) learns she’s a “divergent,” someone who doesn’t strictly belong in any one group.
Though that might make it sound like she has options, it’s actually more dangerous than she first knows, as she discovers a conspiracy to destroy all those like her.
Judd is aboard to play Woodley’s mother, a woman who sees both her children (Tris, and her brother Caleb) join differing factions to her own Abnegation tribe. It'll be a relatively brief turn from her, assuming they stick close to the book, but less brief than her latest role in Olympus Has Fallen. She joins a cast that also includes Kate Winslet, Theo James, Ray Stevenson, recent Empire Podcast guest Aaron Eckhart, Jai Courtney, Maggie Q and Zoe Kravitz.
Neil Burger is calling the shots now, with Divergent set to arrive in UK cinemas on March 21 next year.