Moviefone Editorial

Tag: divergent

  • Miles Teller May Not Star in ‘Divergent: Ascendant’ TV Movie

    Lionsgate’s controversial decision to pull the plug on the “Divergent” film franchise and air the last installment, “Ascendant,” as a TV movie instead, was understandably met with some backlash from diehard fans of the series. Even the stars of the films themselves were caught off guard, with lead Shailene Woodley recently revealing that she learned the news alongside the rest of the world.

    It remains to be seen whether or not Woodley will reprise her role as Tris (she’s said she hasn’t made a decision yet), though we can’t imagine that the star will make her way back onto the small screen. And it seems co-star Miles Teller is in a similar situation, still shellshocked by the news and unsure whether or not he’ll now finish out the franchise.

    “I’ve talked to nobody,” Teller told Variety about the switch from film to TV. “I found out 20 minutes before Variety printed it.”

    His additional comments made it seem unlikely that he’d be back for “Ascendant.”

    “When we all signed on for the first one we had every intention of finishing it theatrically,” the actor explained. “We signed on for x amount of movies and you take that all into consideration. We wanted to see that storyline finish. You know, it’s moving into a different format. So who knows?”

    That doesn’t exactly bode well for fans of the films and the existing cast. And it’s still not a done deal that “Ascendant” will actually appear on the small screen, since Lionsgate has yet to make any public comment on the matter. Fans will have to wait and see if they get any ending at all.

    [via: Variety]

    Photo credit: Andy Kropa/Invision/APDivergent Finale To Be TV Movie

  • Shailene Woodley Was Shocked by the ‘Ascendant’ News, Too

    Fans of the “Divergent” series are still reeling after it was revealed that studio Lionsgate will scrap the theatrical release of the final film in the series, “Ascendant.” While the plans to turn the franchise instead into a TV movie and accompanying series are still a bit up in the air, one person who’s also confused by what’s happening is the star of the films, Shailene Woodley.

    Woodley arrived at Comic-Con on Thursday to promote her new flick, the Oliver Stone movie “Snowden,” right as the “Ascendant” news was breaking, and told reporters she was just as in the dark about the details as them.

    “Honestly, I was on a plane when all that happened and I landed, and I’m like Whoa, what’s going on?!” Woodley said during a press event.

    When asked whether or not she would appear in a TV movie version of “Ascendant,” the actress said she wasn’t sure.

    “I need to talk and find out what the details are,” Woodley told reporters.

    The actress doubled down on that uncertainty in an interview with E! News, telling the outlet, “I honestly have no idea what’s going on with ‘Divergent.’ I know as much as you do.”

    The “Divergent” series, based on the books by Veronica Roth, was initially a hit when it first debuted in theaters. The first film had a solid debut at the box office in 2014, though the next flick, “Insurgent,” fell a bit short of those numbers when it was released in 2015. Then, this spring, “Allegiant” failed to connect with either critics or fans, pulling in a paltry $66 million.

    Many fans of the books attribute that film’s poor performance with Lionsgate’s controversial decision to split Roth’s final novel, “Allegiant,” into two flicks, a strategy that previously paid off for the studio with the “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” series. Unfortunately, it looks like that move spelled the beginning of the end for the “Divergent” franchise, and now it’s unclear if the “Ascendant” TV movie will even happen at all. If it does, it’s unlikely that Woodley and costars Theo James and Ansel Elgort will be on board.

    Stay tuned to see how this all shakes out.

    [via: Deadline, E! News]

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  • What Happened to ‘Allegiant’ at the Box Office?

    'The Divergent Series: Allegiant'In its opening weekend, “The Divergent Series: Allegiant” was supposed to give the still-strong “Zootopia” a run for its money. Analysts predicted that both the hit Disney cartoon and the third installment of the YA franchise would reach about $35 million.

    As it turned out, “Zootopia” did even better than expected, losing just 26 percent of last week’s business and grabbing another estimated $38.0 million, good enough to spend a third weekend in the top spot. But the competition wasn’t even close. “Allegiant” came in nearly $9 million behind, with an estimated $29.0 million. That’s the franchise’s lowest opening yet.

    “Allegiant” should have done a lot better; at the very least, it should have held its own against a movie that’s been out for almost a month. So, what happened? Here are five areas where Tris and her team ran into trouble.

    1. Negative Reactions to the Book
    Like other young-adult fantasy franchises, the “Divergent” movies have banked on the popularity of the best-selling books they came from, as well as the storytelling skills of the authors who created them.

    But even among fans of Veronica Roth’s novels, “Allegiant” was a controversial book that outraged many readers. Even though the ending that prompted the “WTF?” reaction from readers doesn’t happen yet in the “Allegiant” movie (fans might see it in 2017’s “Ascendant“), that sense of disappointment surely kept many “Divergent” fans from wanting to see even this first half of the two-film finale.

    2. Splitting the Movie In Half
    The tactic of splitting a franchise finale into two parts, which made some sense with the plot-heavy “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” has increasingly come to appear to fans as a cynical cash grab.

    The first-half-of-a-finale movies, like “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1” or “Allegiant,” often feel like throat-clearing, all exposition and set-up and no payoff. They don’t feel like organic, stand-alone movies, like the earlier chapters. The stories and characters feel stretched thin, as if to justify such a film’s running time. It’s no wonder that fans often feel like skipping the second-to-last movie in a series and waiting until the actual finale. It feels even more problematic to split the adaptation of a book few liked in half — why would they pay to see two installments when they weren’t too keen on the whole thing the first time?

    3. The Execution
    “Allegiant” might still have drawn fans if the film had been well-made. But it wasn’t, according to critics, who gave the film a terrible 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Ticketbuyers weren’t much kinder, giving the film a B grade at CinemaScore, indicating weak word-of-mouth.

    4. Poor Timing
    The third week in March may have worked well for the first two movies, but this time around, “Allegiant” ran into tough competition. There was “Zootopia,” of course, which was built to appeal to older audiences — as well as tots. There was also the new “Miracles From Heaven,” the faith-based drama starring Jennifer Garner, which did better than expected with an estimated $15.0 million.

    There’s “10 Cloverfield Lane,” which cut into “Allegiant’s” audience to earn $12.5 million in its second weekend. And for older teens, “Deadpool” is still raking it in, earning an estimated $8.0 million in its sixth weekend. Even without the R-rated superhero movie, there were still plenty of acclaimed, teen-friendly options to compete with Tris’ latest PG-13-rated outing.

    5. Fading Interest In the Genre
    The problem may be bigger than “The Divergent Series.” It’s also possible that the whole young-adult fantasy/post-apocalyptic future genre is played out. “The Hunger Games” saw diminishing returns with the final two movies. The second “Maze Runner” movie in 2015 earned 20 percent less than the first one. The latest attempt at launching a franchise in the genre, January’s “The 5th Wave,” stalled out at around $34 million.

    It’s clear that distributor Lionsgate expects big things from the franchise closer, “Ascendant” — instead of releasing it next March, it’s coming out June 2017, at the height of summer blockbuster season. But if the audience has moved on, not just from “Divergent,” but from the whole genre, then summer dollars aren’t going to redeem the downturn the series is seeing.

    If the studios don’t figure out what the next big thing is for the audience that made Lionsgate’s “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” franchises so huge over the past decade, they may as well rename the final movie “Obsolescent.”

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  • 12 Great YA Books That Could Be the Next ‘Divergent’

    %Slideshow-371761%The release of “Allegiant” signals the inevitable end of the “Divergent” franchise (one final installment, “Ascendant,” comes out next year). So it’s time to examine what as-yet-unmade young adult novels have a chance to join “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” on the list of Best YA Films.

    Although “Divergent” and “Maze Runner” have been commercially-successful dystopian stories, and realistic contemporary tales like “The Fault in Our Stars” have generated critical appeal, many more young adult adaptations have failed to launch — even ones with built-in fandoms at the ready. Here are 12 optioned YA novels worthy of the big screen.ya books that would make great movies

  • 12 YA Books That Could Be the Next ‘Divergent’

    12 YA Books That Could Be the Next ‘Divergent’

  • New ‘Allegiant’ Trailer Takes Tris Beyond the Wall

    AllegiantIn the world of the “Divergent” series, the wall separating the city from everything else was a barrier not to be crossed. Until Tris (Shailene Woodley) came along.

    In the new trailer for “Allegiant,” Tris, Four (Theo James), and motley crew of misfits ventures beyond the wall to discover the unimaginable. We get glimpses of the futuristic technology that lies out there, but will the people they meet save them — or destroy them?

    “Tris, this is not the place we thought it was,” Four urgently warns her.

    The last book in Veronica Roth’s book series will be divided into two films, “Allegiant” and “Ascendant.” Jeff Daniels joins the cast of the newest movie as Daniel, a leader of the group that takes in Tris and Four.

    “Allegiant” opens in theaters March 18.

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  • Tris Discovers a Whole New World in ‘Allegiant’ Trailer

    Divergent: Allegiant When we last saw Tris (Shailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) at the end of “The Divergent Series: Insurgent,” they were heading for the walls that separated Chicago from the rest of the world.

    In this new trailer for “Allegiant,” they get outside those walls — but what they find is not what they expected.

    “The Divergent Series: Allegiant” World Premiere Trailer

    It’s here! Watch the first trailer for “Allegiant” — the latest film in the Divergent Series starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, and Zoë Kravitz!

    Posted by BuzzFeed Entertainment on Friday, November 13, 2015

    Tris learns some shocking truths about the world and her place in it. It seems like Chicago was a big experiment — one that’s failed. Now, the lives of everyone in the city are in peril, and it’s up to her to save them all.

    “The Divergent Series: Allegiant” opens in theaters March 18.

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  • Veronica Roth: ‘Divergent’ Author Got Career Advice from Google

    Veronica Roth
    Veronica Roth

    Bestselling author opens up about having to learn to let go of her work when it’s adapted into a movie.

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  • Young Adult Movies: or (The Rapid Deterioration of My Sanity)

    ya moviesBig corporations preying on the young and innocent is a surefire formula in every industry from fast food to footwear. Children, teens, and young adults have always been a target demographic due to burning desires and fiscal irresponsibility. In the entertainment industry, this is no different. In fact, it very well could be worse.

    Few writers broke out so dominantly into the Young Adult (YA) market like J.K. Rowling did when she penned her first “Harry Potter” novel. Every tween with the gift of literacy wanted to tie a bandana around a stick and march off into academia — the witchcraft and wizardry kind, of course.

    What studio heads saw in Rowling’s books wasn’t a chance to spread the magic of Hogwarts into the heart of every child near and far, it was more along the line that vertically intercepts a capital ‘S’.

    YA novels have been formulaically adapted from paper to film since “Harry Potter” sparked the trend over a decade ago. Critically, there is nothing significant about the movies that came from Rowling’s novels. To the trained adult eye, they are bland and predictable; but what is bland and predictable to mom and dad can be quite different to the eye of a child or teenager with a vast imagination.

    This trend has left us with a string of dull and monotonous films that could only have been enjoyed if they were remotely relatable to a more experienced audience (and with open access to Jordan Belfort’s pharmaceutical cabinet). Minding the replacement of wooden wands with shiny fangs, many of us thought the “Twilight” saga would be the second coming of a magical teen fantasy.

    Predictably, the films finished their run as more of a mockery than a good memory. Then came the “Hunger Games” franchise and the most recent “Divergent” series.

    Admittedly, I never took the time to watch every “Twilight” film, but I have seen each installment of the other franchises discussed above. And to the derangement of my meager, aging brain; once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all.

    I’ve heard some positive things about the “Hunger Games” films, although I personally dislike them. I’ve also heard a lot of positive things about “Harry Potter” movies, and I actually enjoyed the first few. But after the tanking of “Twilight” and the majority consensus by critics that “Divergent” and “Insurgent” should be avoided like a drunken uncle, there could very well be a coming demise to the YA franchises in Hollywood.

    And these are just the big time pictures. Recent films that were based off YA novels such as “The Giver,” “I Am Number Four,” “The Maze Runner,” and dozens of others have had mixed critical reviews to put it lightly. Greenlight after greenlight has mature audiences scratching their heads as to why they have to keep taking their kids to see such repetitive military-grade torture.

    The answer is simple: money. For as many YA movies that bomb, there are almost as many that succeed. It’s the same concept that we see practiced through superhero movies on a consistent basis: if America’s youth keeps turning up in the seats, Hollywood will keep churning out the content.

    As long as the scab keeps getting scratched off, the wound will continue to bleed. Unfortunately, the people buying the tickets are the ones getting bled on. One can only hope that these movies will see their day soon enough. But with “Furious 7” proving to be a box office powerhouse, it’s apparent that in Tinseltown, anything’s possible.

    Jack Heyden is a sophomore at the University of Illinois and a contributor to Moviefone’s Campus Beat. Are you a current college student with a love for all things movies and TV? Contribute to Campus Beat!
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  • ‘Insurgent’ vs. ‘The Gunman’ Proves Box Office Is No Country for Old Men

    Theo James and Shailene Woodley star in Insurgent, Sean Penn in The GunmanIt’s hard to feel sorry for Sean Penn, but after “The Gunman,” which he starred in and produced, got whacked this weekend by “The Divergent Series: Insurgent,” maybe a little sympathy is in order. Then again, maybe he’s just one more aging male movie star this winter — after Will Smith, Vince Vaughn, and Liam Neeson — who’s run up against the hard fact that girls and young women are the driving forces behind the box office so far in 2015.

    “Insurgent’s” success should have been a surprise to no one. It opened with an estimated $54.0 million, only about $600,000 less than the original “Divergent” opened with on this same weekend a year ago. Since the first film, “Insurgent” stars Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, and Miles Teller have become bigger draws. Plus, the new movie has a 3D ticket surcharge that the first one didn’t. Even if it didn’t reach the upper 50s like many pundits were predicting, it was clear that the movie was going to dominate the box office this weekend, to the detriment of every other movie.

    It used to be considered a smart strategy to counterprogram against anticipated blockbusters by offering a film that played to the diagonally opposite quadrant. In this case, “The Gunman” would seem to be a draw for older men, the group least likely to be attending a movie like “Insurgent” that’s aimed at girls and young women. Even so, expectations for “The Gunman” were modest — no one seemed to think it would open higher than about $8 million. And still, the movie’s estimated $5.0 million debut (opening in fourth place) didn’t even reach that low bar.

    The fate of the Sean Penn action thriller — directed by Pierre Morel, the same filmmaker who made Liam Neeson’s first “Taken” — echoes that of Neeson’s “Run All Night” last week. That action thriller was seen as smart counterprogramming against Disney’s “Cinderella.” But girls and young women bought $67.9 million worth of tickets to the live-action fairy tale, while Neeson’s crime drama sold just $11.0 million worth. A week later, “Cinderella” has grossed a total of $122.0 million, compared to just $19.7 million for “Run All Night.”

    Sure, you could argue that Penn’s movie is a special case. For one thing, Penn has never been a box office draw. The two-time Oscar winner has certainly never been seen as an action star, so “The Gunman” is a genre gamble for him. Moreover, it was foolish to open it so soon after “Run All Night.”

    Then again, you could argue that it was equally foolish to open “Cinderella” and “Insurgent” just a week apart, and yet neither of them is having trouble selling tickets. And these movies don’t follow too far on the heels of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which has earned $163.8 million in six weeks and is the top-grossing movie of 2015 so far.

    Hollywood likes to treat movies starring or aimed at women as flukes when they’re successful, but how many flukes have to happen in a row before they’re the rule, not the exception? So far this year, women have done most of the muscle-flexing at the box office, while once-reliable box-office leading men like Smith, Vaughn, and Neeson have faltered.

    That doesn’t mean action thrillers, especially those driven by older men, can’t succeed in the current landscape. “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” featuring Samuel L. Jackson and unlikely action hero Colin Firth, opened the same day as “Fifty Shades” and has earned $114.6 million to date. This weekend, it was still in the top five, in fifth place, while “Fifty Shades” fell to No. 14. But “Kingsman” was also a surprising, even shocking piece of filmmaking. It certainly appeared fresher and more original than Penn’s “Gunman,” Smith’s “Focus,” Vaughn’s “Unfinished Business,” or Neeson’s “Run All Night” and “Taken 3” (his January 2015 disappointment).

    If you can’t muster up that kind of originality in your action thriller, you can at least find an action protagonist with a fresh face, one that makes action heroics palatable to an audience that doesn’t usually patronize action thrillers. Which is why the most credible action butt-kicker currently in theaters is Shailene Woodley.
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