Phillip Noyce Eyes Directing 'The Giver' Starring Jeff Bridges

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by Kevin Jagernauth
November 8, 2012 11:19 AM
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Winning the Newberry Award in 1994, Lois Lowry's "The Giver" seems to have been in development nearly as long. The movie came close to being made a couple of times, once with "House of Sand and Fog" writer-director Vadim Perelman at the helm over at Fox, and then again at Warner Bros with David Yates to direct. That fell apart when Yates went on to tackle "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" instead. Last we heard well over a year ago was that it was still puttering along after Jeff Bridges stepped in and nabbed the rights, with Perelman still involved at the script level. Now, some new life has been kicked into it.

Variety reports that Phillip Noyce ("Salt," "The Quiet American") is in early talks for helm the movie, that is now set up at The Weinstein Company with Walden Media to produce. The YA book is another dystopian future tale (is there any other kind?), this time on in which history has been erased, emotions do not exist and people have their lives essentially mapped out for them (sounds like the Mitt Romney platform, zing!). Anyway, a 12 year-old gets chosen to be the next Receiver Of Memories, but of course, things don't go as planned. Bridges is attached to play the title role (to give you an idea of how long this has been brewing, it was once eyed for his late father Lloyd Bridges) but as the trade's source notes this "is very early, as there are a lot of moving parts to this."

Indeed, even the author of the book is pretty non-plussed at this point about a movie happening. “I’m not holding my breath,” Lowry recently told the Houston Chronicle. “And really, the only movie from a book that was a good as the book is ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’”

So, file it under maybe. Noyce's next film is the HBO flick "Mary And Martha," and as usual, he's got about a half dozen other projects also brewing in the background.

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