Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Book-to-Film: The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry is being made into a film right this very second.  (Yoga breath in, yoga breath out.)  I am beside myself with worry over this one.  This is my favorite book of all time, folks.  I am majorly stressed over this adaptation, but am trying to be optimistic and reserve judgement until after I see it.  (Should I see it?  What if it's horrible?  What if they ruin the book for thousands of people?!  Oh the agony!)  As of right now, I'm doing lamaze exercises to calm myself between casting announcements.  Here's who we've got on the casting roster so far:


Jeff Bridges as The Giver
He kind of looks like the book cover image of the Giver, so I guess that helps us envision him in the role.  I always imagined the Giver as being very short, however.  It's not Jeff Bridges' fault that he's tall, though, so that's not grounds to dismiss him.  He's a fine actor.  We'll have to see if he was a fine selection for this role.

Brenton Thwaites as Jonas
They went the Enders Game route and aged the cast a few years.  I suppose that's par for course in show biz.  Thwaites is 25 years old, though, so that's stretching it a bit much.  At least he's relatively unknown, which is nice.  He brings no baggage to a role about innocence and discovery and choice.  One last random fun fact: he's Australian.

Katie Holmes and Alexandar Skarsgard as Jonas' parents
I'm oddly okay with this casting choice.  For now.

Taylor Swift as Rosemary
Less okay with this casting choice.

Meryl Streep as the Chief Elder
I adore Meryl Streep.  No complaints on this one.

Odeya Rush as Fiona
I know nothing about Odeya.

Cameron Monaghan as Asher
I know nothing about Cameron as well.

It doesn't appear that there were any huge casting missteps, with the glaring exception of Taylor Swift.  (See the full cast here.)  I'm still not sure if I'll be seeing this one or not.  I'll have to wait and see what the reviews say first.  Other info, courtesy of BBTV: The film's budget is about $25 million, the producers are Nikki Silver of TonikProductions, Neil Koenigsberg, and Jeff Bridges. Vadim Perelman wrote the adapted script; Michael Mitnick penned the latest draft. Filming is currently taking place in South Africa.
The Giver will be hitting theaters on August 15, 2014.
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4 comments:

  1. ZillahDecember 4, 2013 at 9:24 AM

    taylor swift?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bookmark DragonDecember 4, 2013 at 11:27 AM

    I know, right?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lizzie JonesDecember 4, 2013 at 12:44 PM

    HUGE HUGE HUGE BOOO to Taylor Swift. And I really am not a Katie Holmes fan either. Ugh, I feel so nervous inside. Glad they got Meryl though. She may redeem the film if it needs redeeming. I don't know how I feel about Jeff Bridges... I was secretly hoping for Anthony Hopkins.

    My question is... did you see the Book Thief? Review! Review!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bookmark DragonDecember 4, 2013 at 9:32 PM

      Re Katie Holmes: she's not always my favorite either, but I think it might work here. Jonas' mom is kind of... blank... if I remember right. Katie Holmes fits that bill.

      Also, Anthony Hopkins would have been awesome.

      Haven't seen The Book Thief yet... I will soon though!!

      Delete

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