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Lionsgate gave the first glimpse of its Hunger Games-like franchise hopeful, Divergent, based on the best-seller Veronica Roth books.
Roth was in attendance, as was director Neil Burger and stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James, two actors who could find their careers in new heights after this release.
Lionsgate eventually brought out 11 actors, Maggie Q, Zoe Kravitz and Miles Teller among them, for what became a very populous panel.
‘Divergent’ Photos: 10 Stills From the Dystopian Sci-Fi Film
The movie just wrapped two days ago but the filmmakers cut together a sequence that saw Woodley as heroine Triss boarding a train with other young people who want to be part of the Dauntless faction, that dystopian world’s group who see themselves as brave. The sequence’s dramatic high point was Woodley, in an attempt to prove her fearlessness, jumping off a roof of an abandoned warehouse into the darkness of the crumbled remains of a roof stories below.
Bravery was a running theme throughout the panel, as many of the actors of actors brought it up in relation to their own beliefs.
“Bravery is not being fearless, it’s how you deal with things that are scary and how you act in the face of fear,” said James. “Everyone gets scared and how you face it defines you as a person.”
Woodley talked of some of the high points of shooting, mentioning a scene that saw her crowd surf as part of her character’s initiation into the Dauntless faction.
STORY: Imax to Screen ‘Divergent’ Worldwide
“How often do you get to crowd surf for 45 minutes … in a controlled environment?” she said, making fun of the prolonged shoot the scene required.
Roth, meanwhile, said because she had written the first book of the trilogy several years ago, she had forgotten some of the story’s details. Being on the set caused her to revisit many of them.
“I remember being surprised of the water tanks,” she said, mentioning a particular sequence. “I forgot that part and when I got on set, I saw the actual water and tanks and Shailene actually swimming in it. I was like, Oh. My. God.”
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