Director Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist) is in talks to make Summit Entertainment’s Divergent, a property that has drawn comparisons to Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games, according to Variety.
The plot is set in a dystopian Chicago where society is divided into five factions, each based on a virtue citizens must live their lives by – Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Beatrice Prior is a 16-year-old who must decide which ideal to devote her life to, even if it means being separated from her family and friends. She must then undergo a strenuous initiation, while trying to figure out where a potential romance fits into her complicated life.
Sumit has been working on the film since last March, when the studio acquired the novel rights from 24-year-old author Veronica Roth. The book is the first in a planned trilogy. The studio plans to start production next March for an early 2014 release.
With Burger in talks for Divergent, it’s also been revealed he’s dropped off the planned adaptation of the videogame Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. However that project is still pressing ahead, with Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, who co-wrote both National Treasure movies, tapped to rewrite the film, which follows a treasure hunter named Nathan Drake on an epic adventure to find the lost treasure of El Dorado