Meryl Streep In Talks for The Giver
Good News Everyone!
Jeff Bridges‘ long awaited adaptation of Lois Lowry‘s The Giver has its first good sign that it’s actually happening: a major Hollywood star (other than Bridges himself) is in talks to participate.
Bridges has been interested in putting The Giver on the big screen for a long time now, first coming across the story of a community that has abandoned emotion and memory for safety and consistency when his daughter read it in high school. Published in 1993, Lowry’s novel was ahead of the curve when you consider the current trend of dystopian science fiction in young adult literature. Streep is reportedly in talks to play a community elder:
Streep is in talks to join a shoot that starts in eight weeks in South Africa, in a co-production between The Weinstein Company and Walden Media… Streep will play the chief elder, the authoritarian charged with keeping order in a society that seems utopian.
Deadline also names Brenton Thwaites as the actor tapped to play Jonas, the book’s twelve year old protagonist, and since Thwaites is twenty-four, I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be seeing a much more solidly teenage Jonas. Perhaps someone was uncomfortable with the idea of a society that feeds its eleven year olds pills to suppress their nascent sexual desires? Or the idea of making a YA novel adaptation without a main character that teenagers could develop a crush on? Bridges will be playing the titular Giver, a role he originally had reserved for his father, before the latter passed away.
(via Deadline.)
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