The Giver is being produced by Weinstin Co. and currently has Jeff Bridges attached to play the title role – now they are looking for their Jonas.
The Giver has been optioned for 15 years but only recently, with the rise of dystopian novels, has it moved forward. The production is currently looking to cast Jonas, a young boy who gradually learns the disturbing truths about his placid, controlled environment.
According to The Wrap, several young actors we screen tested over the weekend. Nick Robinson, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Dylan Minnette and Brenton Thwaites were asked to test with Jeff Bridges for the role of Jonas. Miles Heizer and Dylan Sprayberry earned callbacks from a prior casting session and read again for the coveted role on Saturday.
While the character in the novels is only eleven it is likely that he will be aged up for the film judging by the actors reading for the part.
Bridges will be playing the Giver, the powerful elder who holds all of his community’s memories in a dystopian society in which emotional depth has been replaced with a regime of sameness.
The Giver has won the Newbury Medal and is on most middle school reading lists in the United States. It was also the most challenged book of the 90s. The Giver is the first book in a quartet from author Lois Lowry.
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