Wednesday 12 February 2014

Meet Robert Schwentze - The Director for DIVERGENT Movie Sequel, INSURGENT


INSURGENT movie has found it's director! Introducing Robert Schwentke, who will take on the adaptation of the second book in our beloved DIVERGENT series. He will helm the script that is currently being polished by Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend, A Beautiful Mind) based on a draft by Brian Duffield.

From Summit Entertainment: “We are excited to announce that we have found the perfect director to carry on the story of Tris Prior and the expanded world of ‘Insurgent’ in Robert Schwentke. Robert, with whom we have already had a successful relationship, has proven a master storyteller in multiple genres and we can’t wait to see what he brings to Veronica Roth’s next installment of the ‘Divergent’ series. As well, we are very happy to welcome Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman to the team as executive producers.”
 
Insurgent” is currently scheduled for release on March 20, 2015, and will be filmed in Atlanta, GA and Chicago, IL.

In December, we found out that Divergent director Neil Burger couldn’t helm the second movie because of postproduction on the first movie overlapping preproduction, however he will stay on as an executive producer.

We weren't expecting a director to be announced so soon, but then again production starts in May so it's probably because things need to get moving! As we welcome Robert to the Divergent family, we turn to the internet in order to get to know him a little better:


Meet the Director:

Summary: Robert Schwentke was born 1968 in Stuttgart, Germany. He acquired a degree in Philosophy at the Karls-University in Tuebingen before moving to the United States to study at Columbia College Hollywood (CCH) and later at the American Film Institute.
He directed two feature films in Germany, the thriller Tattoo and the comedy Eierdiebe, the latter a semi-autobiographical film about a man being treated for testicular cancer, a disease he had been diagnosed with and survived himself in 1995.  He then directed Jodie Foster in Flightplan (2003), a thriller about a woman whose daughter goes missing on an airplane in flight, followed by The Time Traveler's Wife (2009), in which Eric Bana starred as a man who can't control his passages through time. His recent films include RED (2010), Conspiracy of Fools (2011) and R.I.P.D. (2013).


Bonus points:

He's has experience adapting a well-known book-to-movie with The Time Travelers Wife, and understands the difficulties of the process, and the time limitations of a movie. His take:
 
"That’s a very complicated big thing. First of all, obviously, I resort to them being two different mediums. There are very few films that work like novel. They’re more like a short story, a symphony versus sonata.


He only takes on projects he's passionate about:

"I read a script or I read a project or I read a novel and I know that I’m going to spend two to three years of my life with that, exclusively. So you better like it. There better be an honorable, real need to make that movie."



Movie History:


1. RED:

A 2010 action comedy film inspired by the comic book series. The features BIG stars such as Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, and Karl Urban.





2. The Time Travelers Wife

Adapted from the book of the same name. Robert (in 2009): "Then, I’d been looking for a love story very specifically because I wanted to make a film about a stage in my life. I have a family. I’m married. I’m very, very happy. I wanted to make a movie for my wife and a movie that speaks to what it is to be in a long term, very, very committed relationship because at the heart that’s really what it is." What a sweetheart. Love this movie.





3. Flight Plan

A Hitchcockian thriller. A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane. Stars Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean.Warning: Can mess with your head! Is she crazy? Am I crazy? Is everyone crazy? We liked it.





4. RIPD

A 3D supernatural comedy film, based on the comic book Rest In Peace Department. Honestly, we hadn't heard of this movie until now, which apparently struggled to compete with the summer crowd at the box office last year, maybe cos its a littleee crazy. Still, it stars Jeff Bridges who is cool, and seems like fun.





5. Tattoo

One of his earliest movies. It's in German so don't expect to understand much (unless you happen to speak German, obviously). We included it because it's so different in tone to the above movies- think Seven and Silence of the Lambs, and got good reviews.



 Future Projects: Schwentke is also currently attached to the serial killer pic Entering Hades, as well as The Finest Hours, the Disney drama about a Coast Guard rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.


So what can we expect from him for Insurgent? In short.. we really have no idea. But hopefully we'll get a chance to hear from him soon about his vision for the movie! More importantly for now, make sure you support Divergent when it hits theaters next month! Tickets go on sale March 4th. Watch the final trailer HERE.

Bonus: Writing this article, we can now spell Robert Schwentke without having to double check halfway through. Which is good since we'll probably be typing it a lot over the next year or so.

Thanks to ColliderFrosty for the quotes and Hypable for the press release. 

No comments:

Post a Comment