Divergent Teaser Trailer

Wow, the Divergent trailer brought its A-game by reminding us that Kate Winslet's in it and also by showing the first look of her character Jeanine Matthews, the leader of Erudite.  The dystopian action thriller also shows us the dynamic between Tris (Shailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) and really emphasizes Tris' uniqueness in a world where everyone has to conform.  We've got ourselves a new franchise in hand.  Divergent, directed by Neil Burger, will hit theaters March 2014. 

Divergent: The Next Hunger Games?

Back in 2001 after Warner Bros. launched the Harry Potter books as a successful movie franchise, everyone wanted a piece of the pie as well.  So the next Harry Potter was Twilight, the next Twilight became The Hunger Games and now new kid on the block Divergent looks to be the next The Hunger Games.

 The debut novel of Veronica Roth, Divergent, was first published in 2011 and is set in a dystopian (surprise, surprise) world where society is divided up into five factions: Abnegation (the Selfless), Erudite (the Intelligent), Candor (the Honest), Amity (the Peaceful) and Dauntless (the Brave).  The female protagonist Beatrice Prior is born into Abnegation but struggles to find her true self. After taking her aptitude test when she is 16, Beatrice finds out that she is Divergent and contains traits of different factions.  At her Choosing Ceremony, she makes a difficult path of finding out who she is and instead chooses the Dauntless over the Abnegation.  Thus begins the journey of Tris. 

The book isn't as strongly written as Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games series which pulls you in from the get go but I do feel it is better suited for the big screen.  Summit Entertainment, who is producing the franchise, has already set a release date for March 2014 and I must say, the cast is shaping up nicely which is accentuated by the fact that Kate Winslet is playing Jeannie Matthews, the leader of Erudite.  Winslet has been showing up ensemble pieces like Contagion and Movie 43 in the last couple of years and her last big leading role was on HBO's Mildred Pearce so this is a big get for Divergent.  Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) who's the new Mary Jane in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be Tris and Theo James is the male lead Four.  (Sidenote: But he will forever be Mr. Parmuk from Downton Abbey for me.)  Aaron Eckhart, Zoe Kravitz, Jai Courtney and Maggie Q round out the rest of the cast as Andrew Prior, Christina, Eric and Tori respectively. The film will be directed by Neil Burger (Limitless).

So if all does go according to plan, we may looking out for the next Divergent in the following years.

What I've Been Up to: Not Blogging! But still watching movies...

These end of the year holidays have seriously made me so lazy.  I seem to want to do absolutely nothing...except watch movies that is.  I had a marathon session of movie watching yesterday which was so much fun.  Nothing but back to back movies.  It was in order of movies watched I Could Never Be Your Woman, Memento, Revolutionary Road, Julie & Julia and Dinner for Schmucks.  Yeah, it's an eclectic bunch of films.  It was nice to watch it with a fellow film fan and colleague of mine who watched the films with perfect concentration and attention to detail.  Brava!  Why can't I find more people like her in theater when I go to watch films?  The big downside to theaters usually is the audience.

Anyways, back to the movies, watching Memento after all these years was still exhilarating.  And after seeing so many Christopher Nolan films, it's nice to see the same touches present in his first big film.  He does seem to feature husbands fixated with the memory of their dead wife a lot, no?  First Memento, Prestige and of course, Inception.  I still love the backwards storytelling device.  Still innovative, still deeply layered.  Wouldn't expect anything else from the Nolan brothers.

Revolutionary Road was downright depressing (in a good way) even though I could help but think "Kate and Leo" over and over throughout the movie.  It was so good to see them together after Titanic.  And what fine actors they are, their performances are devastating.  Their last fight was really hard to watch.  I know moaned on about this on Twitter already but I'm really ready to see both Kate and Leo together in a film that has a happy ending this time.  We fans are totally ready for it.  Please? Pretty please?

Finally, I wish I could have ended the movie marathon with just Julie & Julia.  Although I had seen it before, Meryl Streep's joyful performance as Julia Childs is hard to resist.  After that, I ended the day with Dinner for Schmucks a very unfunny remake of a French film, The Dinner Game.  This was one of the first French comedies I seen in college when I was learning French and I loved it.  I could actually understand a few of the jokes without relying on the subtitles all the time.  I hated what the American version did to the original premise.  This was the second mediocre Paul Rudd movie of the day and I didn't like it.  I think I'll have to watch I Love You Man again.  The material simply didn't suit him.  If you get a chance, watch the original French version.  You won't regret it.

Even though, the movie marathon day fizzled at the end of the day.  I had great fun in just devoting a day to only watching movies and definitely plan on doing it again.  Have you done that recently? What movies would you watch?