Bookish: How did tu decide on a YA novel adaptation for your siguiente project?
Evan Daugherty: I was looking at a lot of things – a lot of comic books–and lectura a lot of books, and in the process of that…I read five of these YA books. I read “Pure” por Julianna Baggott, “Legend” [by Marie Lu], “Delirium” [by Lauren Oliver] and “This Dark Endeavor” [by Kenneth Oppel]–it’s kind of a cool, young adult version of the “Frankenstein” story.
Bookish: So tu obviously read some popular stuff being shopped around–why did tu choose to adapt ”Divergent?”
ED: It’s a mutual thing of feeling out whether your take on a piece of material meshes with what the studio wants to do. The things that drew me to ”Divergent” were the specifics of Tris’ character. She starts off in that incredibly sheltered, selfless, peaceful world and then basically she decides to registrarse the equivalent of the Navy Seals. That’s a big character arc, it’s fun to track that. And “Divergent” differentiates itself por being in the vein of some cine that I really like, sort of the military training movie–like “Top Gun” o a guilty pleasure of mine which is “GI Jane.”
Bookish: What has been the biggest adaptation challenge for you?
ED: Tracking Tris from where she starts to where she ends. It’s tricky because the book is a very packed read with a lot of big ideas. So, distilling that into a cool, faithful two-hour movie is challenging. Not only do tu have to establish five factions, but tu have to acknowledge that there’s a sixth entity, which is the divergent, and tu also have the factionless. So there’s a world that really has to be built out for the big screen…the movie is going to do it a little más efficiently.
Bookish: And of course, there needs to be emphasis on the all-important romance between Tris and Four.
ED: I respond to the fact that it is an action-heavy YA book, and I know–having talked to Veronica about it–she’s very proud of that fact. I get hung up on the toughness of the movie but of equal importance is the amor story between Tris and Four. It’s inherently and inextricably linked to Tris’ character journey. There will be plenty of sexual tension and chemistry, but it’s important that all of that stuff doesn’t just feel like it’s thrown in, but that it all helps Tris grow as a character.
Bookish: How have tu worked through translating the simulation scenes to the big screen?
ED: The simulations provide some of the bigger challenges. For cinematic references, Chris Nolan did such a cool job in “Inception” with that world of dreams that looked real but weren’t quite real. tu want the simulations to be visually rich, and tu also want them to have stakes to them. tu want them to be scary and tu want them to feel real.
Bookish: Have tu envisioned any actors in the roles you’re writing?
ED: Despite all the cast rumors that I’ve seen, I haven’t really let that seep into my brain too much–probably because I read the book so many times before I started seeing that discussion happen [on fan sites].

Via: divergentfans.com