New Location, New Director and New Additions To Cast Will Make Insurgent “Bigger”

Insurgent is currently filming in Atlanta, Georgia and it’s sure to be different from Divergent, the first film in the series. For starters, Divergent was mainly filmed in Chicago, which is where all three of the books on which the movie is based are set. Star Shailene Woodley said, ” It’s been really nice to switch things up. Everything in a way is different.” She went on to talk about all the changes, “We’re in Atlanta, it’s summer, it’s not cold, Chicago winter. Our director is different, the set design is different, the costumes are different. It feels much bigger.”

“Limitless” director Neil Burger bowed out of directing Insurgent citing the time crunch between films and Robert Schwentke, best known for “R.I.P.D” & “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” accepted the job. Woodley is impressed with Schwentke’s directing style, “Robert, our director, is really, really keen on making sure we feel comfortable with a scene as well as he feels comfortable with a scene. Until it has the right flow or the right tone, he won’t move on and that’s a big blessing in a big movie like this, to have somebody who really is keen on us feeling like our needs were met to support the character and that his needs were met to support the film.” Co-star Theo James says they wanted everyone involved to understand what had come before, “We put a little taste together just to show the crew how we’d been doing and what came through is A) the scope. It looks kind of richer and bigger and more complex.”

Also different this time around is some of the cast. Stars Woodley and James are returning along with Ansel Elgort, Mekhi Phifer, Miles Teller, Jai Courtney, Maggie Q and Academy Award Winner, Kate Winslet. Added to the cast is yet another Academy Award Winner, Octavia Spencer from “The Help” as leader of the Amity faction and two-time Academy Award Nominee, Naomi Watts as leader of the Factionless and mother to Theo James’ character, Four. The adorable Emjay Anthony from Jon Favreau’s indie film, “Chef,” will appear in the film along with model/actress Suki Waterhouse and TV’s “Parenthood” star, Rosa Salazar. Screen Actors Guild Award Winner, Daniel Dae Kim, who starred in “Lost,” “24” and “Hawaii Five-0,” will play Jack Kang, leader of the Candor faction. And the much anticipated part of Uriah will be played by Australian import, Keiynan Lonsdale. Lonsdale is a talented actor, dancer and singer best known for “Dance Academy,” “Razzle Dazzle” and his work on MTV Australia.

In this case, it seems like different really is better and we can’t wait to watch Insurgent early next year!

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