Tuesday, 12 November 2013

DIVERGENT Trailer Premiere: Watch the Interview with Director Neil Burger



Key points:

1. Neil wanted the world of Divergent to look real, so people will feel like they are really there, not too much CGI. That's why they shot in Chicago where the book is based.

2.  The coolest parts to film were the Dauntless train scenes, and the fighting/combat scenes. The fights are brutal, he says, and intense. He's curious to see how people feel about them. Out of the physical scenes, the train scenes took the most takes, because its really hard, getting actors onto moving trains! The Ferris Wheel scene was the most challenging. It was cool, but really hard to do, took hours, and was brutally cold!

3. If he had to pick a faction, it would be Dauntless. But he also thinks he'd be Divergent, because his mind is always going in a million directions. He would come from Abnegation, and his aptitude test would probably reveal he was Erudite, but he'd probably fail initiation and become factionless!

4. He says that he wants the film to make the audience go away thinking "What would I do, what would I do in this situation?"

5. On casting: Its all about who is the best actor for the part, even if the physical traits are slightly different. Some of the actors may be slightly older- the book is YA, but its much more universal and can apply to all ages, so he wanted actors that spoke to everyone, the best actors to portray the character right. On Eric- Jai Courtney may not be as pierced as Eric, but he fits the character completely, he is SO Eric, Neil says. His sharpness, his meanness. He's a scary Eric.

6. Costumes: He wanted to keep it real, believable, they thought about the limited resources they would have to make clothes etc. He didn't want it to look like people were wearing uniforms, so there is a slight variation in clothing, tones etc, small individual statement pieces, although less so in Abnegation, because that wouldn't fit with the way of the faction.

7. All the Dauntless actors went to boot camp. Did fight training, gun training, knife training etc,

8. Neil says that obviously a book is very different to a movie, and you're taking 400+ pages and condensing into a script of about 120 pages, so you cant have all the scenes you want included. But the power of the book, the emotion, the spirit, you will get that on screen, it will be there. He thinks fans will love it. He can't wait for them to see the movie so they can see how great it is and be reassured about some of the scenes and actors.


  1. excited to watch this.


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