Neil Burger went into creating the movie knowing he wanted to stay close to the plot of the book, explaining that to him “it was like a real epic Hero’s Journey” [1]. He wanted to stick with the spirit of the book so they condensed the movie down to the most important components. Burger was set on creating a movie that would be accurate to the characters. In order to accomplish this, he convinced Veronica Roth to give him insight to the trilogy’s ending so that he could set characters in a way that would lend to their eventual endings. From the start, he was convinced that Divergent would be a big movie, because of the central questions that the book proposed: "Who am I? Where do I belong? How do we all live together in a society peacefully?" [2].

    

Fear Tests

In regards to the fear tests conducted by Dauntless, Neil wanted to expand his work from Limitless (2011). In Limitless, Neil "explored the psychological world of mind expansion [3]." He wanted to take this idea of psychology in his films one step further by examining the inner psychology of controlled nightmares, that all members of Dauntless must go through.

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The Future

When asked about the futuristic approach of the movie, Burger gave a surprising response. The movie takes place in the future which is a known fact, however, Burger stated that making the movie futuristic was not his intent. "The movie is not really about the future, it’s not about futurism or what the new technology is going to be, it’s more about human nature [4]." His main aim was to take into consideration the evolution of human personalities and examine their traits within factions, not to create a futuristic utopia movie. 

     

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   References: 

1.  Chitwood, A. (2014, August 5). Neil Burger talks divergent, not directing insurgent, deleted scenes, and more. Collider. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://collider.com/neil-burger-divergent-allegiant-interview/  

2. Jarvis, R. (2014, March 21). 'Divergent' Director Neil Burger on Film Being Called the Next 'Twilight'. ABC News. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2014/03/divergent-director-neil-burger-on-film-being-called-the-next-twilight

3. INTERVIEW: DIVERGENT DIRECTOR NEIL BURGER. (2014, March 21). Den of Geek. https://www.denofgeek.com/books/interview-divergent-director-neil-burger/

4. interviews. (2014, April 1). Interview with Neil Burger for DIVERGENT - interviews • Movies.ie - Irish Cinema Site. Movies.ie - Irish Cinema Site - Movie Times, Reviews & Competitions. http://www.movies.ie/interview-with-neil-burger-for-divergent/