It is shaping up to be a good week for Octavia Spencer. Not only did FOX pick up her new show, “Red Band Society,” but Lionsgate has announced that Spencer is going to appear in the “Divergent” sequel, “Insurgent.”
Spencer won an Academy Award for her performance in 2011's “The Help.” Here, she will join a cast which includes Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Kate Winslet. Winslet, of course, is also an Academy Award-winner for her performance in “The Reader,” and Woodley can be seen on screen next month in “The Fault in Our Stars.”
“Divergent,” which was released this past March, is an adaptation of the first book in a trilogy by Veronica Roth. The film has taken in more than $250 million worldwide and focuses on a dystopian future in which people are divided based upon aptitude.
As for Spencer's part, she will be playing Johanna, the leader of the Amity faction. Robert Schwentke is directing the film based un a screenplay by Brian Duffield and Akiva Goldsman. The full synopsis for “Insurgent” reads as follows: “'Insurgent' raises the stakes for Tris as she searches for allies and answers in the dystopian ruins of a futuristic Chicago. Tris (Woodley) and Four (James) are now fugitives on the run, hunted by Jeanine (Winslet), the leader of the power-hungry Erudite elite. Racing against time, they must find out what Tris”s family sacrificed their lives to protect, and why the Erudite leaders will do anything to stop them. Haunted by her past choices but desperate to protect the ones she loves, Tris, with Four at her side, faces one impossible challenge after another as they unlock the truth about the past and ultimately the future of their world.”
“Insurgent” is the second book in Roth's series and the filmic version is set to arrive in theaters on March 20, 2015.