Divergent 2, Insurgent Movie Release Date: Allegiant Movie Split Into 2 Parts?
With the upcoming March 18 release of "Insurgent," the second movie adaptation of Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy, the producers have disclosed that they will stick with their earlier decision to split the third and last part "Allegiant" into a two-part movie.
Producer Douglas Wick said they will split Roth's final book into two movies since "Allegiant" contains gigantic emotional events that could not fit in just one movie.
"What we would never do is to shoot it all at once and cut it into two movies. So, the challenge was: Could you make one really good movie, go through all the filmmaking process, then release it and then go back and make another movie?" Wick said.
The 60-year-old producer was addressing concerns that the Divergent series may encounter the same bumps that "The Hunger Games" experienced for splitting its last sequel "Mockingjay" into two parts.
"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1" received mixed to positive reviews from critics, with praises heaped on its solid performances and political subtext. However, critics pointed out at the insufficiency of action resulting from the split of the novel into two feature films.
"Without being a spoiler, there are some very gigantic emotional events that occur [in "Allegiant"] that sort of felt like they deserved their own book," Wick told The Hollywood Reporter.
Wick also promised Divergent fans that they will remain faithful to what Roth wrote in her trilogy, including the ending that upset a lot of fans.
"Without getting into the spoiler stuff, that tradition in movies of that kind of ending can be incredibly powerful. We're going to embrace it," Wick assured.
Producer Laura Fisher, for her part, admitted that they are already contemplating about how to expand the Divergent franchise in other directions after the series ends, revealing that they have been talking to Roth about it.
Wick and Fisher bought Roth's Divergent series when it was still an unpublished manuscript, whose movie adaptation continues to influence sales of the book to $30 million.
The "Divergent" film received praise for having solid performances from its main actors. However, it was criticized for its unoriginal plot, with several critics making negative comparisons to "The Hunger Games," which shares a similar story and characters.
Despite this, the film was a financial success as it reached the top spot at the box office during its opening weekend, grossing $288 million worldwide against its budget of US$85 million.