@colliderfrosty Shares”30 Things About the Making of the Divergent Movie” + “Tipsy” Four Scene Info!

We posted the first part of our Divergent set visit with you here, and we’ve been sharing some of the other sites visits as well! Collider created a list of “30 Things to Know About the Making of the Divergent Movie”. There is a lot of fun stuff on the list, including a few things about the movie and cast we hadn’t seen before. There’s even a report of seeing the ‘tipsy’ Four scene being filmed. (One of the scenes we’re most looking forward to.)

Check it out here:

1. When he started prepping Divergent, the Director Neil Burger knew a little bit about how the third book ‘Allegiant’ ends so as to ensure he wasn’t on the wrong path with any of the characters.

 

2. Burger wanted to differentiate Divergent from the other YA adaptations by telling the story in a much more cinematic way.

 

3. Some of the violence from the book was toned down in order to ensure a PG-13 rating. There’s less visual violence (ie. blood spatter) and more “emotional violence.”

 

4. One of the main things that attracted Woodley to the project was the relationship between Tris and Four: “It’s very different than the Bella/Edward relationship; they’re completely on the opposite sides of the spectrum.”

 

5. Burger wanted the film to feel real and not raw in a gritty way, but raw in an immediate and intimate way.

 

6. The producers were looking for a director who could juggle a difficult adaptation, loved character, and wouldn’t be overwhelmed by bringing an epic scale to the film visually.  After seeing presentations from many different filmmakers, they realized Neil Burger was the best.

 

7. The producers knew early on that Kate Winslet would be playing Jeanine, so Burger was able to tailor the character so that it would serve as a launching pad for Winslet’s talent.

 

8. The producers were aware of the story’s surface-level similarities to The Hunger Games, but felt that the urban world of Divergent would contrast with the rural feel of Hunger Games and help differentiate the two.

9. Uriah was left out of the first movie because it would have been too difficult to ask a great actor to come and spend thirty seconds on screen just so they can have him return for the second film, in which Uriah will play a much larger role.

10. The film was shot on location in Chicago, the setting in the book, and Burger wanted to use as much of the city as possible. He decided to shoot the film like street photography but where the streets are 150 years in the future.

11. Burger also didn’t want the film to look bleak and flooded blues and grays as the colors. Tris wants to be a part of the system, so Burger made the social system feel luminous, especially Dauntless.

12. When asked which actors best fit what he imagined when reading the book, James cited Shailene Woodley (Tris), Miles Teller (Peter), and Ray Stevenson (Marcus).

13. Regarding differences from the book, Woodley says they had to change the way some things are presented in the film to ensure they make sense logic-wise.

14. In the film, Four has been in Dauntless for a few years longer than he was in the book.

15. The burgeoning relationship between Four and Tris is presented differently in the film, because there is only a limited amount of screen time that can be devoted to establishing the small nuances between the two.

16. Shailene kept wanting to push her stunts farther and farther.

17. In filming the Ferris wheel scene in Chicago, the production used fake mud and decals designed to look like rust. This transformed the structure into a dilapidated Ferris wheel from 100 years into the future without relying too heavily on CGI.

18. The ambition from the beginning has been to make a great standalone movie and not just a film that sets up the sequel.

19. They made a list of fan favorite pieces of dialogue from the book that they tried to include in the movie, as long as it didn’t feel intrusive.

20. The cast is all locked in to appear in the sequels, should they get the greenlight.

21. The production had a very hard time casting Four.  They looked at a lot of would-be movie starts and up-and-comers in the vein of “beach handsome” or “Paul Newman-esque,” but no one popped until Theo James did his screen test with Shailene. They needed someone who was magnetically attractive but who also felt mysterious.

22. Producer Douglas Wick said they were so desperate to find the right Four that they looked at the tweets from fans to see who they were suggesting.

23. Summit/Lionsgate sat down with some of the actors and prepared them for the experiences ahead regarding the eager fanbase.

24. In the original script, Molly had no lines and was mainly a fighting role.

25. We don’t see Molly’s fear landscape in the film.

26. There is not a lot of dialogue between Christina (Zoe Kravitz) and Will (Ben) since the story is centered around Tris and Four.

27. Zoe Kravitz spoke to her good friend Jennifer Lawrence before signing on to Divergent, and the Hunger Games actress encouraged her to do it.

28. Kravitz was initially hesitant to sign on because she had seen how other major YA franchises had affected the lives of actors.

29. In designing the look of the film’s buildings and exteriors, the production designer and director imagined that society had continued on from the present for about 50 years or so, at which point an unexplained natural disaster occurred that stopped progress in its tracks.

30. Early on, Zoe Kravitz bought tickets for the cast to go to an Erykah Badu concert in Chicago, which is where they all began bonding.

—Tipsy Four Scene —

“The scene that we saw being filmed involved Tris returning to The Pit from her first simulation and speaking with Four while he’s, well, inebriated.  While in the book I read Four as more playful in this particular scene, James played Four as being much more in control of his actions and less overt (ie. drinking, not drunk).  It was tough to judge the chemistry between Theo James and Shailene Woodley in this scene because we were seeing Four in an altered state, but their performances seemed pretty spot on to me.  To get all of the actors in the mood for the party atmosphere of the scene, Burger played Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” over the loudspeakers just before the dialogue in the scene began, and it became clear that James is quite the jokester on set; his dance moves were particularly striking.”

What do you think, Initiates? We’d love to hear what your favorite items on the list were!

You can read the full set report here.

Tags: Collider, Divergent, Divergent Movie, Divergent Movie News, Divergent Set Visit, Four, Movie News