Yesterday I gave a primer on the young-adult adaptation The Maze Runner. I had to give it; we’re on a very fast treadmill of YA trilogies and one-offs and mega-sagas being turned into alluring, talked-about movies, and not even the most voracious among us can keep up.
Today, though? Today I’m just basking in the first trailer for The Giver. The one that got away (from Hollywood), the 1993 CLASSIC by Lois Lowry, the one that’s been sporting that glimmering Newberry Medal on its cover for two decades, the 179-page opus I’m firmly convinced has been read, in 2014, by AT LEAST every single literate American between the ages of 10 and 27.
And it’s all thanks to Jeff Bridges. Thank you, Jeff Bridges. Thank you for snagging the rights in the ’90s, and for picking them back up a few years ago, after you lost them. Thank you for playing the Giver himself and rocking that unexpected hair choice. Thank you, as well, Meryl Streep, for being in this film. For making it possible for your voice to open the trailer, and for ensuring that the phrase “Academy Award winner” could appear not just once but twice in this clip.
Ah, yeah, the trailer. Looks like they nixed the Wizard of Oz/Pleasantville schtick and filmed all in color. Also: More like a Tom Cruise actioner than the book, but … it’s a movie. (One directed by the guy who did Clear and Present Danger and Salt.)
And no sign of Taylor Swift. Yet.