When director Neil Burger (Divergent, The Illusionist) started making headlines for his latest movie, Inheritance, the focus fell on the fact that the filmmaker used an iPhone to capture his globe-trotting story. Now that the upcoming 2025 movie has made it into theaters, you can see for yourself how the results turned out. I, for one, thought the handheld flexibility of the tiny but effective iPhone 13 camera immersed the audience deeper into the intrigue that swirls around Maya (Phoebe Dynevor of Bridgerton fame), the daughter of a spy who is trying to rescue her father (Rhys Ifans) now that he has been kidnapped. For Dynevor, though, the experience led to some unusual complications after the fact.

As you will see when you watch Inheritance, which opened in theaters on January 24, the movie employs guerilla-style filmmaking that has Neil Burger and his cast quite literally filming in any location that happen to be occupying. When Maya has to travel between cities, Burger captures Phoebe Dynevor having a conversation in her airplane seat. Scenes take place in hotels, restaurants, and even on a motorbike chase through the crowded streets of Delhi, and made the congestion work for the character.

But as you might know, if you read a lot of entertainment coverage, movies aren’t shot this way. Too often, there’s a lot of waiting around as director, cinematographers, set designers, makeup artists and more do what they can to perfect a shot. When I had the opportunity to speak with Fair Play star Phoebe Dynevor if transitioning back to traditional filming after Inheritance was challenging, she told CinemaBlend:

I think that Dynevor’s next film after Inheritance is Famous, a thriller she’s making with Zac Efron for A24, but we’ll have to wait a bit until we learn more about that movie.

One of my biggest questions with regard to filming on the iPhone simply came from keeping the images in focus. Too many times, when I’m using a phone to video something, and I pan or scan the way that Neil Burger does in Inheritance, light will change the focus of the lens, and images might blur… something that never happens in this film. I asked the director about it, and he told me:

Might this be the future? People have often said that as phones become more advanced, it democratizes the filmmaking process, meaning virtually anyone can make a movie like Inheritance – so long as they can afford all of the travel that’s necessary. I’m with Phoebe Dynevor, in this instance. If tech like this makes setups faster, thereby speeding up the storytelling process, then I’m sure there are plenty of craftspeople who’d back that technology, so more movies can open in theaters.

Look for Inheritance, playing at a movie near you.

SPOILERS are ahead for Voyagers, only in theaters now.

Anyone else feeling a bit more grateful to be on the solid ground of planet Earth after Neil Burger’s Voyagers? The science fiction thriller followed the fallout of a young crew of 30 on a one-way trip to a sustainable new world that will take their whole lives to travel to. Following the death of Colin Farrell’s Richard, the crew is left to their own devices to continue the mission they were born into or challenge it and live more autonomously. Let’s see what Voyagers stars Lily-Rose Depp, Tye Sheridan and Fionn Whitehead thought of how things panned out, shall we?

The inciting incident is, of course, the realization that the entire crew has been taking medication called “The Blue” all of their lives to suppress their human desires. Once they catch on to the secret, the ship runs rampant (and all hormonal) which divides them into two groups. One lead by Fionn Whitehead’s Zac, who wants to stop taking The Blue and forgo the mission all together and the other by Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp’s Christopher and Sela, who accept their mission to procreate for future generations.

After a chaotic and violent third act on the Voyagers ship, the crew decides to compromise. They will no longer take The Blue, but they will stick to the mission and reach their promise land. When CinemaBlend spoke to the cast, Lily-Rose Depp shared her thoughts on the ending on how it may affect the crew’s future:

Lily-Rose Depp had an optimistic look at the Voyagers ending when I posed to them the question as to how they think the society stemming from the crew would go forward following an unconventional upbringing on the ship without culture and desires. Thankfully, by the end, they decide to embrace being human, along with deciding to raise a new generation and live on the new planet after all. Tye Sheridan had a short and sweet response to follow Depp’s:

Fionn Whitehead was exploring the opposite point of view as his Voyagers character. He shared his own take away from the film following the ending:

Voyagers truly incites a discussion we grapple with every day as a society. Do we live for the moment without thought of consequence for what comes next, or do we implement some sacrifices into our lives for the greater good and to benefit others? A compromise is fair in our everyday lives, too. But following the dramatic events of the Lord of the Flies in space thriller, one has to wonder how the society they build will become.

What did you think of the ending of Voyagers? Were you satisfied? Vote in the poll below, check out what critics are saying about the film and take a look at what movies are coming next to theaters and streaming this year here on CinemaBlend. Voyagers is now playing in theaters.

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Fans of the Divergent trilogy have been wondering for years if Divergent 4 would happen. The film series producer Neil Burger along with the film series' cast have seemingly moved on without a word to the fans. The director hasn’t said much about the canceled fourth installment until now. Burger gave his blunt thoughts on if the fourth film would ever happen.

The lingering question has been out there for years. The Divergent series was left with some loose ends and unfinished storylines after Divergent 4 was canceled. Neil Burger would know more than anyone considering he directed the first installment and produced the last two. So years after its cancellation, Burger finally answered the longstanding question while promoting his latest film Voyagers. The director recently told the hosts of our own ReelBlend podcast:

As Neil Burger pointed out, Lionsgate was looking at cash grab by patterning the Divergent franchise after other young adult franchises. Of course, that mindset ultimately doomed a promising franchise. But at least Burger had the wherewithal to know doing the fourth film wasn’t the best idea. That coupled with the franchise’s diminishing critical and commercial reception led to Divergent 4 not moving forward.

Arguably what doomed the Divergent film series from the start was The Hunger Games. The similarities between both film series and source material made audiences side-eye Lionsgate and Divergent. If there had been time between the two franchises, things probably would've worked out better. While Neil Burger has some control over the series, studios heads ultimately steered the ship. Once the studio didn’t see the films as a priority anymore, they tried to push the franchise toward television. But that wasn’t what the stars or fans really wanted. Shailene Woodley voiced her opinion on the situation before bailing on the franchise. That move eventually leading to Lionsgate closing shop completely.

While Divergent fans might want a proper conclusion, Neil Burger’s words essentially crushed that dream. But it was neither Burger nor Shailene Woodley’s fault. It ultimately came down to Lionsgate executives biting off more than they could chew. That decision left fans with unanswered questions. Hopefully, the series will be revived for film or television and give fans the conclusion they deserve.

This weekend’s latest release, Voyagers, follows a crew of 30 young men and women as a spaceship takes them on a one-way trip to a new planet. Since the promised land that awaits them will take nearly 100 years to reach, the all-star cast including X-Men actor Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead and Colin Farrell begin to feel the walls close in on their floating home by the minute. The science fiction thriller explores how closed off space travel can feel, and apparently it wasn’t too difficult to imagine on set either.

When CinemaBlend spoke to Ready Player One actor Tye Sheridan and the Voyagers cast, they broke down exactly what it was like on set filming its tense moments. In the words of Sheridan:

Voyagers may remind the viewer of sci-fi classics such as Alien or Interstellar, but more than the others, the movie explores living in confinement through these characters. The movie’s premise also revolves around the discovery that the crew has been living a life of sedation thanks to a mysterious blue drug. Fionn Whitehead, who memorably fronted Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, also spoke about his experience:

If you ever wondered what it feels like to work on a movie spaceship, it turns out it’s super uncomfortable. Fionn Whitehead spoke about it actually feeling more closed off in person than it does in Voyagers, as the 30-person crew find themselves in a frustrating Lord of the Flies-like situation that draws them apart.

Voyagers was written and directed by Neil Burger, who previously made 2011’s Limitless and 2014’s YA adaptation Divergent. It sees Tye Sheridan exploring sci-fi much further following his major roles in Ready Player One and as Cyclops in the X-Men prequel films. In the movie, his character, Christopher, becomes drawn to Sela, played by actress, model and daughter to Johnny Depp, Lily-Rose Depp. Fionn Whitehead’s Zac rocks the ship with some controversial ideas about how the crew should proceed after a life of sedation.

Voyagers is coming to theaters this weekend, following a landmark moment for movie theaters thanks to COVID-19 progress and the huge draw of Godzilla vs. Kong. We’ll see how Voyagers does this weekend when the Lionsgate film arrives this Friday, April 9. Check out what other new releases are coming our way with CinemaBlend’s 2021 movie release schedule.

From the mind of Neil Burger (Divergent, Limitless) comes Voyagers, a sci-fi thriller that he has written and directed. It stars Colin Farrell, Lily-Rose Depp, Tye Sheridan, and Fionn Whitehead, among others. The film takes place in a fictional future where a hospitable planet far from Earth has been discovered, but it takes 86 years for a crew to arrive. So in order to start a colony of humans there, 30 young men and women are sent into space on a mission, during which they will reproduce so that their grandchildren can become the first colonists. But when the children are young adults, one discovers that they’ve been given a drug that suppresses their ability to truly feel human, and chaos ensues.

Voyagers debuts in theaters on April 9, and critics have already started sharing their thoughts on the film. Check out what they're saying.

Our very own Sarah El-Mahmoud saw the sci-fi thriller for the home team and was disappointed, rating it a 2.5 out of 5 stars. Though Voyagers has a solid concept and stylistic cinematography, El-Mahmoud’s interest in the film went downhill after the first half. She argues that the script doesn’t allow the actors enough to work with, specifically Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp, and that the movie is too “safe.” She writes:

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter says Voyagers is “basically Lord of the Flies in space,” pointing out that it’s not very original. While Rooney considers the cinematography “invigorating” and compliments Travor Gurecki’s score, he argues that the script doesn’t allow the characters to have enough personality, and this is needed as the film builds tension through a contemplation of the essential struggles of human nature. Though the young adults on the voyage are supposed to lack individuality, as that’s the point before they figure out why they’re so docile, the rest of the film doesn’t allow the characters to be anything more than basic outlines. Rooney said:

Katie Walsh from the Los Angeles Times also touched on the lack of individuality of the characters in Voyagers, and noted that even later on when the kids stop taking the vitamin that stops them from having any feeling, there’s still a “chill” between the characters and they act as if they haven’t grown up together all those years. Walsh writes:

Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson was majorly let down by the space thriller. He enjoyed the premise of the film and how it could have had such thematic possibility. However, he compares it, like we’ve seen before, to “Lord of the Flies in space,” and was disappointed that it left so many paths unexplored. Lawson saw the potential diminish scene after scene, and noticed a lot of narrative threads that could be so easily pulled, but are never touched. Overall, he said:

Leigh Monson from What To Watch also touched on the commonality between Voyagers and Lord of the Flies in her review, but was a little more impressed than other critics we've highlighted here. She did note that the movie failed to deliver as much personality to the women than to the men (though the men are pretty “stock characters”), leaving Lily-Rose Depp’s character with little to do. But Monson argues that predictable though it is, the climax remains thrilling.

Will audiences see Voyagers as simply Lord of the Flies in space? Or will they enjoy it more than some aforementioned critics have? We'll have to wait until April 9 when the sci fi thriller releases in theaters to find out.

Until then, you can check out our list of all of the new movies coming out this month to plan your next trip to the theater or your couch.

The Commercial Space Age is seemingly before us, as we’re slowly seeing an exploration of exciting journeys out of Earth’s atmosphere. Neil Burger’s Voyagers challenges the freedom that Star Trek or Star Wars often depict when traveling among the stars. This science fiction thriller imagines the long jaunt of a group of children raised in space – doomed to spend their whole lives on their way to a destination on another world. Although it serves as an interesting thought experiment, the movie's most burning question in its space expedition is simply a sullen, “Are we there yet?”

Voyagers establishes a world where a hospitable planet away from Earth has been discovered, but it takes 86 years for its crew to arrive. In order to start a colony of humans on this new world, a crew of 30 children are placed aboard a mission to grow up together and procreate in hopes that their children will eventually arrive safely and settle. The movie follows the crew as young adults when one discovers that they’ve been given a drug that suppresses their ability to truly feel human their whole lives, and a Lord of the Flies scenario ensues.

Voyagers has a solid, immersive concept... until it cuts the cord.

Neil Burger is a solid filmmaker to bring a science-fiction concept such as Voyagers to life. The writer/director memorably made 2011’s Limitless, which conversely explores a drug that opens up an expansive world to Bradley Cooper’s leading character. Burger also successfully played around with YA dystopia with 2014’s Divergent. Voyagers feels like a bit of a remix of these two films, but unfortunately does not take its concept across that line that previous sci-fi films of its kind have dared to go.

The first half of Voyagers is well executed. The cinematography is stylistic and successfully envelopes the audience in the spaceship these 30 kids grew up on. The heart of the film feels carried in Colin Farrell’s character, who is the only human on the crew who was not born on the ship. It’s interesting to understand the mission through his eyes, as Farrell bonds with the rest of the crew as he explains to them about how their existence will usher in generations of life, even though their own lives must be suppressed to living on a ship with the same routine day-to-day.

Voyagers is less of a science fiction action-adventure, and more so a claustrophobic thriller and introspective piece on how a group of young adults may react to its premise. The two concepts that end up being discussed here are whether one should suffer today to benefit future generations, or go prioritize self-focused autonomy – which some members of the crew start to adopt as they challenge both their upbringings and mission. But when Voyagers enters its second half it becomes more of a tired arguing match than an intriguing commentary.

The talented Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp are not given enough to work with.

The two actors that seek to anchor Voyagers are Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One, X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Lily-Rose Depp (The King, Yoga Hosers). They each offer solid performances on their own, along with Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch). The chemistry is overall thin and it feels as though they were restrained by the content of the script. Voyagers is basically about a group of young people who lack personality because they have been shielded from culture and pleasure and with that it becomes difficult to empathize with them.

There absolutely could have been a version of Voyagers that explored its concept and allowed room to show off complex and interesting characters, but the movie is so focused on being plot driven that it doesn't have that capacity.

Voyagers is a sci-fi film that is much too safe and confining to satisfy.

Voyagers also misses the mark on exploring the euphoria of these young people learning about their sexual desires for the first time. The movie’s use of sexuality ends up being disappointing because it's more so explored in a predatory, empty kind of way. Overall, the movie glosses over one of the most intriguing aspects sparked throughout the film, and when the crew has the chance to dive deeper into its characters it stays on the surface.

Despite its character flaws, the movie does manage to be entertaining to some degree. It takes an old school science fiction approach that calls for performance over big effects or expertly-choreographed action sequences. A studio film going for a more intimate, dramatic approach for this genre of film is rare, but there’s just not enough appeal on an intellectual or thematic level to engage the viewer with this approach. Voyagers is overall disappointing, but is not without some heart and allure.

Every feature film ever made, from the smallest independent productions to the biggest blockbusters, has gone through an at least modest period of turbulence, but there are few that have gone through the ridiculous ups and downs experienced by the developing Uncharted movie. The project – a live-action adaptation of the beloved video game series of the same name – first started coming together all the way back in November 2009, but in the last decade it’s accomplished little more than rotating through a series of filmmakers and scripts.

Even the franchises’ biggest fans probably struggle to keep track of all the back and forth regarding the film, so we’ve decided to… well, chart it. With a deep dive into the CinemaBlend news archives guiding us, here is the full and wild history of Uncharted’s challenges and delays.

The Original Version

As noted above, it was in November 2009 that Sony first started getting to work on a live-action Uncharted, hiring Conan The Barbarian screenwriting duo Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to pen the screenplay, but it was actually just short of a year later that the film really started cooking with gas. This was when the studio managed to recruit David O. Russell to helm the project, the filmmaker having a lot of heat at the time because of the forthcoming release of The Fighter.

With Russell at the helm and penning a new version of the script, Uncharted began to employ some top tier talent. A decade before Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman came together it looked like the video game project was going to be the film that reunited stars Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro. While controversial, it was also confirmed that Mark Wahlberg was the writer/director’s choice to play the lead role of adventurer Nathan Drake.

That version of the project existed for a few months, but it was less than half a year later that everything started falling apart. In May 2011, it was reported that David O. Russell was no longer attached to make Uncharted, eventually explaining that his take on what to do with the source material didn’t line up with what the studio wanted to see from the blockbuster.

From Neil Burger To Seth Gordon

Losing a writer/director with as much clout as David O. Russell was surely seen as a disappointment by the studio executives, but little time was wasted trying to find a new vision from a different director. The search took about two months, as Neil Burger was given the helm of Uncharted in July 2011. The filmmaker was just a few months removed from the release of Limitless starring Bradley Cooper, and he started putting together his own take on the material, wiping the slate clean as far as story approach.

With few updates about its development emerging publically, that period of Uncharted’s history lasted for nearly a year-and-a-half, but Neil Burger decided to drop the film in November 2012, deciding to make Divergent instead.

Having lost its second director, the project once again had to start over, and Sony hired National Treasure screenwriters Marianne and Cormac Wibberley to take a crack at the blockbuster. That led to Uncharted spending some time sitting on a shelf… but then in February 2014 it found new life. With a filmography including comedies Horrible Bosses and Identity Thief, director Seth Gordon was matched with the video game adaptation.

By mid-2014 plans were made to have production startup in early 2015, and the film even got Hurt Locker Oscar winner Mark Boal to do a version of the script as it was coming together… but principal photography never began. Instead, by June 2015 it was reported that Uncharted had lost its third director, with Seth Gordon moving on to pursue other projects.

The Shawn Levy Era

After five years of development and attaching three directors, the Uncharted movie had made zero real forward motion, and it wasn’t until July 2016 that the feature found new life again. Sony felt positive about a pitch given to them by Joe Carnahan, and hired him to work on the screenplay. A proposed June 30, 2017 release date was floated on the release calendar, but by September 2016 it was clear that wasn’t going to happen.

Having been developing Joe Carnahan’s script for nearly a year-and-a-half, Sony struck a deal with Shawn Levy to become the fourth director of Uncharted in October 2016. It was only just shortly after this that Mark Wahlberg announced he was no longer involved with the production – having still been attached since the David O. Russell take – but his journey with the film wouldn’t really end there (we’ll get back to him).

By January 2017, the film once again looked like it was ready to become real. Uncharted had a finished script by Joe Carnahan, and plans were being made to have the project ready to shoot in the spring. In May 2017, Sony decided to double down on one of their biggest franchise’s stars, as it was decided that their Spider-Man: Homecoming lead, Tom Holland, would also play Nathan Drake in Uncharted. Unfortunately, the studio also once again found itself having some serious trouble actually nailing down a director to make the damn thing.

Tom Holland Is Nathan Drake, But Who Is Directing?

To date, Shawn Levy holds the record as the director with the longest attachment to Uncharted, as he was seated in the director’s chair for over two years… but that particular era ended in January 2019. With the future of the video game movie unclear, Levy decided to make Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds (a totally different kind of video game movie), and left his position vacant for 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg to take over.

Sony started to get ambitious again and announced a December 18, 2020 release date, but as you might have already guessed, that’s not happening. In August 2019 it was revealed that Dan Trachtenberg had become the fifth director to drop the project. The gap was filled quickly, with Bumblebee’s Travis Knight taking on the job just a few weeks later, but issues haven’t stopped plaguing the project in the months since.

Where We Are Now

First there was the news in December 2019 about the need to change plans for production due to Tom Holland’s commitments to the Spider-Man franchise (which has a new chapter out in 2021, and plans to start filming in the summer). This led Sony to lose Travis Knight as director (a.k.a. goodbye to Director #6) while pushing the film’s release date back to March 5, 2021.

In January 2020 Sony decided to reteam with Zombieland/Zombieland: Double Tap director Ruben Fleischer for Uncharted, and in the weeks since the film has put together an ensemble cast including Mark Wahlberg (now as Victor “Sully” Sullivan, Nathan’s mentor and father figure), Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali, and Tati Gabrielle. Unfortunately, it’s not clear if the film is going to be able to make its current release date, as the latest reports about the project say that production has been pushed back at least six weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With still not a single frame of the movie captured yet, we can’t say for certain what the future holds for Uncharted. That being said, we have faith that it will eventually get made, and when it does it will hopefully be worth the wait.

In anticipation of the home video release of Divergent, we had the opportunity to speak with director Neil Burger about the making of the film. Among the topics of discussion, finding the right Four, Kate Winslet's pregnancy, the zip-lining scene that almost didn't happen and the challenges the sequel faces.

While we don't get into major spoilers about the movie, we do talk openly about the film, so consider yourselves vaguely spoiler-warned.

Shailene Woodley was cast immediately. Finding Four took forever.

Neil Burger told us that Shailene Woodley was the first person they offered the role of Tris to and she took it right away. Finding Four was more of a challenge, and part of that was due to Woodley's powerful presence. "We would audition her with some guy, who was a really good actor, and she would actually kind of steamroll him," Burger said. "In a scene when they had to have an argument or something like that, because she was so strong, so we needed somebody who would intimidate her, who would be stronger than her."

They were looking for a Four who was "a stone wall in a way, yet with just the slightest vulnerability that you could sense through some of the cracks." They searched the globe for the right actor, including Germany, England and Australia, among other places. It was casting director Mary Vernieu who suggested Theo James. "Of course I’d seen Downton Abbey," Burger explained. "And I was like oh, that guy’s fantastic, and then we brought him in and like, it was this huge wave of relief, first to see him and then we put him with Shailene and it was exactly the dynamic I was looking for."

Ansel Elgort tried out for Four.

Burger noted that Ansel Elgort auditioned for the part of Tobias, but from the sound of it, Burger didn't think the actor was quite ready for this kind of role. "What’s so wonderful about Ansel is that he is so approachable," Burger explained, saying they were looking for someone who was a bit more intense. "If you’ve seen Fault in Our Stars, he’s such a great guy, and sometimes that carries over." They ended up casting a little bit older for Four because they needed the character to be this powerful leader. "I think Ansel will get there," Burger added. "But he wasn’t there at the moment when we were casting it."

Elgort ended up playing the role of Caleb, which gave us our first preview of him and Shailene Woodley on screen together, this time as siblings. The two would go on to play love interests in The Fault in Our Stars.

The zip lining scene almost didn't happen.

Burger confirmed that the draft of the script he was working from originally didn't have the zip-lining scene in it. The reasoning behind almost omitting such an iconic scene from the book was that it wasn't really life-altering and it didn't present any kind of obstacle for Tris. "She’d had other victories already," Burger explained. "With the capture the flag scene which comes right before it."

But in the end, Burger fought to get the scene in the movie. "I just felt like it was such a great spectacle and also such a signature event in the book that it had to be in there," he said. It certainly was one of the most fun scenes to watch in the film, and it sounds like that was Burger's primary goal, as he said he worked really hard to make it as wild and fun a ride as possible.

Kate Winslet was pregnant during production.

"I'm still doing the movie," is the first thing Kate Winslet said to Neil Burger when she called to inform him that she was pregnant. Burger said Winslet offered him that assurance before going on to say, "I’m pregnant and you know, it might take some reworking of things because by the time I’m shooting I’m going to be really pregnant,"

He said she actually wasn't showing that much, but they did have to redesign some of her clothing and recut it to make it fit and "somewhat camouflage" the pregnancy. As for any of the more physical scenes near the end of the film, that went mostly as planned, though they had to use the stunt woman a bit more. "But she was always game for it," Burger said, going on to talk about how committed Winslet was to the performance, and how it was his job to reel her back in (and remember that she's pregnant.) "As any great actress, they actually lose who they are and go into the character and throw themselves head long, literally or figuratively, into the scene. So in her case, she'd be losing the fact that she was pregnant and my job was to make sure she didn't hurt herself."

If you watch the film with the commentary, you'll spot one scene where, according to Burger, Winslet almost fell down. But it sounds like she made it through the production without major injury or mishap.

Divergent was filmed in Chicago. Insurgent won't be.

Neil Burger is executive producing the sequel, but he's not involved in directing at all, this time around. That wasn't originally the plan. "I actually started prepping it and hired a line producer," he said. "But then it came to a point where it was like I can’t finish this movie properly and be prepping this other big movie, and so I bowed out at the end of last year." He's spoken to Insurgent director Robert Schwentke, but it doesn't sound like he's all that involved in the followup.

For Divergent, Burger wanted to shoot as much of the film in real locations, in Chicago, as possible. A lot of what you're seeing in the background is at least partially actual Chicago, with digital effects added in to create a more dystopian version of the city. The bonus features on the Blu-ray demonstrate some of that really nicely, showing off how they made the ferris wheel look distressed and how they presented the buildings and streets of Chicago in a more futuristic way. Insurgent is being filmed in Atlanta, and from what Burger said, it sounds like the decision was for financial reasons, but it'll create more work in the long run.

"It’s really challenging in the sense that they don’t have that infrastructure there. They don’t have that physical environment to use. They have to create it all and it’s not easy," he said, adding, "Not to mention that they have a reduced prep schedule and a reduced post-production schedule, so they have got their work cut out of them. But I think they're doing a great job and it's all going really well so far. So I think they're pulling it off."

As of right now, Burger's not involved in Allegiant, the two-part feature adaptation of the final book in the Divergent trilogy.

Learn the real reason why the eye-stab scene was taken out of the movie here!

[[ br. ]] Divergent is currently available on Blu-ray and DVD!

Leading up to the release of Divergent on Blu-ray and DVD, Summit-Lionsgate released a deleted scene that shows one of the Dauntless initiates suffering a severe eye wound... to put it mildly. While we might have assumed that this scene had to be cut due to the film's PG-13 rating, director Neil Burger actually says otherwise. There were some scenes that had to be toned down to avoid an R rating, but the eye-stabbing scene wasn't one of them...

This is the scene in question:

The clip shows Tris and some of the other initiates waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of the agonizing screams of Edward (Ben Lamb), one of the leading Dauntless initiates. In the book, the scene is a demonstration of just how competitive the Dauntless trainees are, and how determined some of them are to rise to the top -- or at the very least, to not wash out.

Burger says he heard the theory that the scene was cut because of the violence, but corrected the assumption, saying that wasn't really cut for the rating. "That was mostly cut out because it was interrupting the flow of the story," he explained, adding that he loved the scene and thought Ben Lamb's performance was great, but going on to say:

So, in the case of the eye-stabbing scene, the omission had less to do with the violence and more to do with its disruption to the flow of the story.

Divergent was always going to be PG-13. "R rating was off the table," the director confirmed, noting that there was too big an audience of under-17s who wanted to see the movie. And hitting that rating did require some changes. Burger says there was "a lot of trimming" done to soften some of the brutality of the fighting, noting that it's disappointing, but "it is what it is."

If you listen to the commentary on the Blu-ray, Burger actually points out an area of the movie that had to be altered for the film's rating, and here's where we get into spoiler territory, so if you haven't seen the movie yet or at the very least, read the book, read no further!.

There's a scene near the end of the movie where a Dauntless initiate, who isn't affected by the serum, is shot. It's still in the movie, but Burger says his cut was "much more shocking," going on to add that "the movie as a whole, especially in the latter section, was much more visceral and frankly, violent."

Stay tuned for more thoughts from Neil Burger on the making of Divergent. In the meantime, check out our review of the theatrical release of the film here!

Now that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has brought in $730 million, eclipsing its predecessor’s worldwide earnings by almost $40 million, I can’t imagine Lionsgate really believes their upcoming Divergent trilogy will reach those numbers. But they’re definitely ready to live in an optimistic utopia as they have set release dates for both the dystopic sequels Insurgent and Allegiant. Don’t expect Divergent director Neil Burger back, though, because he has diverged from the project. You’re glad we didn’t use that in the headline, right?

Variety gave no sign as to why the director stepped down, but the studio still has a short while to nail a replacement down. No doubt shooting for future commercial tie-ins with college basketball’s March Madness, Lionsgate has set March 20, 2015 for Insurgent, while Allegiant will hit theaters on March 18, 2016. The first film went into production in April of this year, and even though we have yet to see how well it will do in theaters, there is a wealth of directors out there who can pull off high-concept YA fare for the back to back productions. Maybe The Hunger Games’ Gary Ross?

Speaking of, this question presents itself: Before anyone has had a chance to see Divergent as Burger lensed it, does it even technically matter to anyone not involved with the production that he’s out of the picture? Obviously fans of Burger and Veronica Roth’s novels may be affected, but I wonder if some people are almost too sold on directors sticking with franchises for three films or more. Have Peter Jackson’s predetermined trilogies somehow tainted the idea that different directors should give audiences different takes on preexisting material? Once Ross left the Games, Francis Lawrence stepped in to direct the next three films, the latter two of which representing the final novel in that series. To me, it’s only once we see what Divergent gives viewers that we can begin to wonder what Burger’s lack of presence will mean for the series. I’ll be passing along the soapbox now.

The first Divergent film will follow Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley), a teenager growing up in a futuristic Chicago where the population is divided into five factions based on their inhabitants’ qualities. Tris inhabits all the qualities, and could possibly be the key to saving humanity, which makes her a target to the powers that be. Spoiler alert: She doesn’t die in the end. It also stars Kate Winslet, Theo James, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney and Mekhi Phifer.

Read what Burger had to say about the film with our own Kelly here, and check out the trailer below. You can find it in theaters on March 21, 2014.

Yesterday, those of us in attendance of the Summit panel at Comic-Con got our first look at some footage from the upcoming feature adaptation of Veronica Roth's Divergent. Before that happened, I had the opportunity to sit down with Roth, as well as director Neil Burger, to talk about bringing Tris Prior to the big screen, filming in Chicago and what we might expect from the anticipated zip-lining scene. Roth was also kind enough to give us a few hints about the third book in the series, Allegiant, as well as the previously announced e-Shorts she's planning to publish online, starting this fall.

From what Burger and Roth had to say, it sounds like they're both really pleased with how Shailene Woodley has performed as Tris Prior, the story's protagonist. The story is set in dystopian Chicago where society is divided into five factions. While being tested to determine which faction she's best suited for, Tris learns that she's Divergent, which means she'll never fit into one faction. She must keep that a secret as she chooses her faction and begins her training to find her place among her people. One of the first things I spoke to Neil Burger about was the challenges that might arise in trying to bring all of the aspects of Tris' personality out in the film.

Just talking about Tris’ nature as a character and so I wanted to just jump right into that. You’ve got her set up, she’s three different things and that really comes through I think, in the book, and I’m curious to know how you balance the bravery and the selflessness and the intelligence and also, the humanity that comes out on her. How was it adapting the character?

Neil Burger Well, it’s a really good question, because she has to have this journey where she goes from somebody who seems like she’s a really unlikely candidate for Dauntless into this woman that becomes this badass warrior at the end and does all these incredible things. Yet, she has to have some traces of that, you know, so that what she does do at the end doesn’t come completely out of nowhere. So, you’re right. It was a complete balance and a balance when you’re on the set, directing Shailene who actually is a really strong character and kind of fierce, and so to sort of keep her down, if you will, and kind of shy and kind of unassuming in the beginning, but not so much that you won’t believe later that she can be Dauntless and she can be that sort of soldier-warrior that she becomes. Does that make sense?

So, we’re going to see her kind of brought out?

Burger - Totally, well, when you see her in the beginning, she seems like she’s this shy, quiet, Abnegation girl, but yet she doesn’t quiet fit into that group, so she sort of speaks her mind. She can’t hold her tongue in certain ways and she does, she is willing to do things and take chances and things like that, but she’s torn, she wants to stay with her family and be a part of the Abnegation, yet if she does that, and it’s something that we all face, like she’s going to hurt her family if she basically realizes her dream of going into Dauntless and hurt them profoundly, so she’s really torn and so that’s it. It’s incredibly dramatic and it’s wonderful character that Veronica wrote.

Veronica, I wanted to just ask you about your reaction when you learned that Shailene was going to play Tris and then later on, since the movie has been in production, what’s you reaction to it afterward?

Veronica Roth - Well, when they first told me that they were going to approach Shailene, I was pretty happy because I has seen her in The Descendants and I know she’s very talented and that she plays a very good authentic teenager, which is what Tris is. She’s not like a badass action figure, like she has a really intense emotional struggle. Do I stick with my family, do I leave, like what do I do? So, I think I was really optimistic that Shailene would be able to capture that and then the first time I saw her, man, she’s just so good, like it’s hard to describe. It’s just everything she says, everything she does feels very real and authentic. She never overdoes anything. She’s very subtle with facial expressions and her movements, I don’t know. And then she was able to do these incredibly difficult physical things on set and she doesn’t maybe look like she could do it, which is perfect for Tris, but she’s like climbing up this ferris wheel like it’s not 100 feet above the ground or however tall it is. I don’t know. I’m really impressed with her. Every time I went I was really impressed with her.

Let’s talk about the stunts then, since you brought that up. Now, we have the zip-lining thing, which I think people are really anticipating and that’s something we haven’t really seen So, how was it filming that?

Burger - Filming the zip line was amazing. We did it over the course of about three or four days and it’s all done in different pieces, but we strung a thousand foot zip line through the streets of Chicago and did it for real and even through the zip-lining itself probably would be longer than that going from the Hancock tower, would probably be almost a mile long or something like that. We have virtually a quarter of a mile of zip-lining where we did it and they got going so fast through this alley, just a few feet to spare with fire escapes on either side. It’s crazy, but we did it, so...

Could you talk a little bit about the benefits and challenges of filming in Chicago for the movie?

Burger Well, the benefits are that it shows a futuristic society or a future time in a completely real way. We’re on the streets using real buildings. It’s the real wind in their hair and the real sun kind of glinting off of windows and into the lens or into their eyes and it’s completely real and that’s what I was after for the movie because I feel like the characters, what the characters are going through is very real. I wanted it visually to feel very immediate. I didn’t want it to feel synthetic or too CGI or digital in any way. So, we shot on the streets. So, that’s all I could ask for in Chicago was this grand landscape to use as our backdrop. It’s always hard, when you’re out on the streets and shooting in the city and honking cabs and sirens and things like that, but you know, that’s kind of what it is with any kind of filmmaking. So, it was great shooting in Chicago.

Have thee been any challenges in terms of making it look more like this futuristic and kind of dystopian Chicago?

Burger - Yeah, I mean it’s always a challenge to do it in a very subtle way. We were looking to do it in a way that felt very new. We’ve seen other futuristic movies, other post-apocalyptic movies, so the challenge was how do we make it really new and cool, yet appropriate for Veronica’s story. So, I think we came up with something that does all of that.

Excellent. Just one last question, Allegiant and the shorts. People are really excited about them. Can you give us clues, any hints about what’s going to be happening in the last book and those four stories?

Roth - Well, it’s hard to give clues about Allegiant, because I just end up giving away crucial details. You get to see what’s outside the fence and what’s happening out there. I mean it’s a great exploration of that and as far as the shorts, they’re a kind of a little disjointed prequel to Divergent from Tobias’ perspective and there’s a little bit of overlap with Divergent, so there will be a little bit of Tris in the last one.

Neil Burger is doing a bit of project swapping. While the Limitless director was attached to helm Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - the video game adaptation that David O. Russell also abandoned - he has decided to move on and instead is now in talks to helm the new teen film Divergent.

While losing a director is rarely a good thing, there is some good news for the Uncharted movie. According to Variety, Marianne and Cormac Wibberley have been hired to do a rewrite of the video game movie. The two scribes are best known for writing both National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets. The selection of the Wibberleys is interesting given the fact that back in late 2010 - when Russell was still attached - the project was described as being similar in tone and feel to the National Treasure movies. The studio will wait until the new writers have completed their draft before hunting for a new director.

As for Burger, Divergent is what Summit Entertainment is hoping can be a gap-filler once the Twilight franchise ends later this year. Variety says that the director actually beat out other "high-profile" filmmakers for the job. The project is based on the series by 24-year-old author Veronica Roth and follows 16-year-old protagonist Beatrice Prior as she makes her way through a future where society has been split into five factions based on the virtues of honesty, selflessness, bravery, peacefulness and intelligence. Divergent is going to be the first of a trilogy and the second book, Insurgent, was released in May. The final book in the series will come out next fall.

Summit had no comment on the Burger negotiations, but the trade says that the studio hopes to start production next March and have the movie ready to be released in the first quarter of 2014.

A few weeks ago, fans rejoiced as David O. Russell and all his wildly off-base story ideas walked away from the big screen adaptation of Uncharted, the popular video game about to get its third installment. Soon after, The Illusionist director Neil Burger signed on to replace Russell, hot off the mild success of Limitless, starring DeNiro and Bradley Cooper.

In doing press for the Limitless DVD release, Burger made it known that he is starting from scratch with the script and won’t be using any of the “family of treasure hunters” crap that David O. Russell legitimately made up. To WeGotThisCovered:

If you connect the dots, it’s pretty easy to tell that the front runner for the Nathan Drake role will be Bradley Cooper, which I’m mostly OK with. He’s certainly sarcastic enough, he’s in shape, but what is Bradley Cooper without his flowing locks? With a Drake buzz he’ll just look like his character in Wedding Crashers. Of course, Burger doesn’t necessarily need to work with an actor he’s used before, but that relationship is always nice to have going in to a film. (Cue thousands of Nathan Fillion fans chanting his name.)

What is good to hear is that Burger realizes that the game works on its own story and doesn’t really need embellishing. It’s cinematic already, and according to him it’s just a matter of making things in the game work on film. More on this as casting gets going.

When you’ve got a movie about a guy on drugs, what better way to show his softer side than to give him a girlfriend? Well, not only does Abbie Cornish do just that for Bradley Cooper’s character in Limitless, but her own has quite a bit of depth as well – and a heck of a fight sequence.

Cooper is Eddie Morra, a guy who gets hooked on a new illegal drug called NZT. The little clear pill gives the user the ability to use their brain’s full potential ultimately making them smarter and stronger. Cornish’s character, Lindy, is Eddie’s former flame. She ditches Eddie after he hits an all-time low, but the two reunite when Eddie becomes super Eddie courtesy of NZT. However, Eddie’s new life isn’t entirely noble and he gets mixed up with some shady characters and, of course, Lindy gets a little too involved for her liking.

With Limitless hitting theaters on March 18th and Sucker Punch arriving on the 25th, Cornish is in full press mode and came ready to spill on anything and everything from her awe of Robert De Niro to her tactics when choosing roles. Check out all of that and much more in the interview below and be sure to keep an eye out for Cornish’s big moment in the film. You won’t believe the lengths she goes to!

Can you tell us about the character of Lindy and how you came to this project?

Abbie Cornish: Neil Burger sent me the script a while back and he really wanted me to do it and I thought it was a really interesting film and I felt like the character had room to grow and evolve within the scenes that were already written because it is a small part. So, as an actor, you always want to have a journey to go on, you want to have something where you can sink your teeth in and get your hands dirty. And so I felt like that was possible with this role and I was a fan of Bradley Cooper’s. We had never met and through the process of making the film, we became really good friends and I just thought Neil, as a director, would be a very present and caring and collaborative director. The genre of the film was something I hadn’t explored before and also the idea of this drug and what it could do and the possibility that it could really exist in our everyday lives. Even though it’s far-fetched, at the same time it kind of felt possible and real.

How does it feel to have your name above Robert De Niro’s name on the poster?

It’s interesting, I remember when we did the script read-through, the seats were very much like this, but close together so if you imagine the seats being like this (pulls the chairs closer together) and there’s a little card that says “Abbie Cornish,” there’s one here that says “Robert De Niro” and one here that says “Bradley Cooper,” and Bradley sits down and I sit down and we were talking over Bob De Niro’s chair to each other like this and then all of a sudden I look and I saw his placard and I said to Bradley, “Look, in a moment this chair will be filled by Robert De Niro.” I said, “How surreal is that?” He goes, “I know, I can’t believe it,” and it was just that moment of realizing that. We were leaning over his chair and that moment of realizing and all of a sudden we were making sure his chair was ready for him. [Laughs] It was just the most amazing thing for me because, as an actor, his performances are incredible. He’s such a talented and amazing actor and has had such a wonderful career. I think when you meet him, for me, it was like this fog for a moment, or more so, it sounds silly [laughs], but when people talk about near-death experiences, their life flashes before their eyes; when I saw Robert De Niro’s face, all his characters and his performances flashed before my eyes and then that and I saw this man who is Robert De Niro. It is, of course, surreal and wonderful and amazing and awesome.

Would you ever take NZT yourself?

I think if you could have the ability to take a drug like that without any side effects, without any consequences, without having to face addiction and all that sort of stuff; if you can just go on an adventure with it and feel what that is like. If you could open your mind and utilize 100% of your brain for a moment and feel that. I feel like so many of us have these infinite lists of things to do. I want to learn a language, I want to learn how to play the piano, I want to evolve as a painter, I want to run faster. Whatever it is, I feel like we always have these aims and aspirations and so the idea of taking a drug where within half an hour you could read a novel or within two hours learn a language or learn how to play the piano overnight and read classical music, it’s kind of fascinating. Imagine that. I don’t know why I would ever say no to the concept of that.

There’s also a very serious side to this concept because we’ve got kids today taking drugs to perform better in school. Can you weigh in on that topic?

Yeah, that was something I was talking about today actually. The closest things to it that I can think of are things like Ritalin and Adderall are these drugs that make you focus that are meant to accelerate the process of study and learning and all that. It’s interesting. For me, I very much feel that each is to their own. I feel like you can have a debate about it and you can express your own personal opinion on whether you yourself would want to do it or not do it or whether you’re against it or for it, but at the end of the day, how much can you really judge someone else’s existence and their life and what it is that they choose to do? I think as long as it’s not harming anyone else, I don’t know how much judgment can be placed upon it. I kind of feel like that with a lot of things in life. You know, I’m a vegetarian and very much active in regards to how I feel about animal rights and protecting animals and giving animals a voice, but at the same time, I appreciate and respect other people’s decisions to eat meat. The only thing that I hope is that people are educated, that they’re aware, that they’re living a conscious lifestyle. The only time where my hair stands up on its ends is when someone is very ill-informed, when they’re arrogant, when they haven’t educated themselves and they feel like they know what is right, but at the same time, they haven’t explored the truth of the situation.

How do you choose what roles you do and does it affect you personally if a movie does or does not do well commercially?

I’ll answer the second question first; I feel like I’ve been really blessed with the career that I’ve had and the work that I’ve been able to do as an actor because it originated from a place of films like Somersault where it’s a smaller budget film, great director, very hard working crew and you make that film with your heart and your soul. You don’t even think about what’s going to happen with it. I remember making Somersault and I didn’t even think about what was going to happen with the film when it was actually a film. I just thought about the film we were making.

Was that the first movie you made?

That was the first lead role in a feature film. I’d done a couple small roles in films and I’d done a bit of television, so it felt like the first time. And I remember when that film finally came out and then I got this phone call that said we were going to Cannes, I couldn’t believe it. It’s the most amazing, awesome thing that we went to Cannes, then we went to Tokyo and we went somewhere else. It was so beautiful and so amazing. And so I think that is always alive within me where, for me, the process of making a film is where all the energy goes and what’s really important and I feel that if you’re passionate, if you pour yourself into it and you’re surrounded by people doing the same thing that it doesn’t matter. And not a lot of people have seen Somersault, but I’m so proud of that film. That, for me, I don’t really think of things in those terms. Even with Sucker Punch, it’s a $100 million dollar film, it’s Warner Bros., I’ve never done a film like that, I’ve never been in a movie of that budget and you see big billboards everywhere and it’s on the internet, it’s on the television; it still feels the same to me. The process of making it was the same and I really care about the people I made it with.

Then the first question, choices that I make, yeah, it’s kind of the same thing. I make choices based on my instinct, I make choices based on the story, the character, the people that I’ll be working with. The more I work actually, the more I realize how important it is the people you make the film with.

So the decision-making process doesn’t correlate with the work you’ve just done?

No, not at all. And you know what? In the last couple of years, I’ve worked with some really, really awesome people and developed friendships and relationships that I will take with me for the rest of my life. For example, on Sucker Punch, the five of us girls bonded like you wouldn’t even believe and Zack Snyder and Deb Snyder, just the way they make films. I don’t know if you guys have done conferences with them, but you just get a sense very fast that they’re like a team and so when you work with them, it feels like you’re part of their family. We were all so sad when we wrapped on that film, because we felt like the family was sort of breaking up and I still stay in contact with everyone. For example, Jena Malone, she’s one of my best friends. It’s wonderful that feeling to me. Sometimes I call it play, sometimes I call it work, because it’s not defined just as work because it’s so enriched.

Robert De Niro is an icon. Naturally, any film he’s part of will have a press day packed with questions like, “How was it working with Robert De Niro?” Sure enough, the press conference for Limitless was no exception. However, hearing the same sort of question and answers time and time again never gets boring because we really know so little about the man himself; De Niro is quite concise with his words. But between his co-workers’ thoughts and his own intriguing but succinct insight, we’re able to paint a relatively clear picture of who Robert De Niro really is.

In the film Limitless, De Niro stars as an antagonist of sorts, Carl Van Loon. Van Loon is the high powered figure in the financial world and the man Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) opts to lend his newfound knowledge to. You see, before meeting Van Loon, Eddie is a failed writer lacking any motivation whatsoever. Then he finds NZT, an illegal drug that grants you access to your entire brain including memories dating back to birth, the ability to digest information at an incredible rate and have increased sensory perception. After popping some pills, Eddie finishes his book, but then decides to move onto the financial world and who better to work for in that sector than Carl Van Loon?

“To me, the story’s about intelligence and human potential,” director Neil Burger explained. “We need a very powerful character to play Carl Van Loon.” The problem was, the role of Car Van Loon was far from a leading position as it was written. In the original script, at the end, Eddie meets a brand new character, entirely separate from Van Loon, but, as Cooper explained, “We combined the two and made Carl Van Loon both characters.”

Still, the role isn’t as prominent as you’d expect for De Niro, but he didn’t mind. When it was noted that the part doesn’t seem particularly challenging, De Niro himself explained, “It’s not that it’s not challenging; it is. I enjoyed doing it and I wanted to work with Bradley and Neil.” He also added, “sometimes, even though it’s not perfect, you do it to work with people so you can work with them again later on.” But that’s not to say Limitless doesn’t have a well-written script. De Niro was eager to throw in, “[Writer] Leslie [Dixon] did a very good job.”

One person in particular who was quite in awe of De Niro was star Bradley Cooper. In fact, the two have a rather long relationship. Well, in Cooper’s eyes they do. Cooper recalled the time when he was back in acting school and De Niro came in to talk to his class. When it came time to ask the actor questions, Cooper was prepared to ask De Niro about sword training for The Mission, but “right before, because we had the microphone thing like this, someone stood up and asked him about The Mission and I thought, ‘Well, I can’t ask him about The Mission.’ And that’s when the real question Cooper wanted to ask De Niro came pouring out. Cooper recalled:

Forget the fact that Cooper managed to get his question out; it was De Niro’s response that meant the world to him. “And then he literally went like this, he went, [imitating De Niro] ‘Yeah, I didn’t, uh, no I didn’t see anybody do that, but, uh, that’s a good question.’ [Laughs] It was like a beam of light shot into my chest!”

The Cooper-De Niro saga doesn’t even end there. “And then I put myself on tape to play his son in Everybody’s Fine,” Cooper continued. “I put myself on tape because I couldn’t even get an audition for it and he somehow saw it and wanted to meet me, so I met him in his hotel.” While his mom waited outside in the car, Cooper went in to talk to De Niro and the conversation went as follows, “[imitating De Niro] ‘Uh, yeah, you’re not gonna get it. But I, uh, I see it. I see you. I see you. I see you. Okay.’ [Laughs] And then he said, ‘What, um, who’s reading the other role?’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s so weird. My mom was reading it.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I thought that.’”

Next up was their encounter at the Tribeca Film Festival. “I was a juror for the Tribeca Film Festival, so we’re at this lunch a year later, and I sit down next to him and I was like, ‘Hey! How you doing? I auditioned for the …’ No idea who I was,” Cooper joked.

Well, even after all that Cooper got yet another chance to make an impression on De Niro in Limitless. In fact, having had so many brief encounters with him in the past might have helped Cooper recruit De Niro for the part. “At that meeting it was like I was on the drug; I did not stop talking because one thing I learned about him is he does not like small talk,” Cooper recalled. “I didn’t say, ‘Hey, how you doing? How the room?’ I just sat down and went, ‘Okay, so,’ and I spoke for like 15 minutes and then he went, [imitating De Niro] ‘Let me give you my cell.’” Cooper added, “And Leslie Dixon and Neil Burger, it wasn’t just me, it was a full assault to try to get him to do the movie. Assault successful! De Niro was onboard and the entire team couldn’t be happier.

As for that shock and awe effect De Niro seems to have on his co-workers, De Niro assured us, “That goes away in a couple of days, if not sooner.” He also pointed out the good in that type of relationship. “In fact, any of that kind of stuff an actor will use it, should use it in the interaction.” How appropriate for a character as intimidating as Van Loon?

Now for the ultimate Limitless question; would Robert De Niro take NZT should the opportunity arise? That’s a big fat yes. “NZT would be something that probably, once in a while, I wouldn’t mind at least trying [laughs], but not getting hooked on.”

While promoting the film Limitless, Bradley Cooper brought up an interesting topic: the character an actor plays winds up reflecting upon that actor. Basically at one time Cooper was seen as the nice guy from Alias then the jerk from Wedding Crashers and then the good looking smart aleck from The Hangover. Nowadays Cooper is most directly associated with Phil thanks to The Hangover’s continued success, but he’s gearing up to turn that image upside down yet again with his latest film, Limitless.

Cooper plays a guy named Eddie Morra, a writer who was once on top of the world with a book deal, but now sees that deal winding down with no book to show for it. Everything changes when Eddie comes across a new illegal drug called NZT. He pops one pill and is granted access to his entire brain, allowing him to recall every touch, taste or smell he ever encountered, digest information at an incredibly accelerated rate and ultimately always be steps ahead of the competition. Sounds too good to be true, right? Of course. Like most drugs, NZT has its downsides and they’re deadly. If Eddie is going to stay alive and continue to build upon his newfound success, he’s going to have to keep the NZT flowing.

During a recent press conference Cooper went into depth about his character and NZT in addition to the actual filmmaking process and how he shot one of director Neil Burger’s many visual tricks. Cooper also recalled his very first encounter with his co-star, Robert De Niro, and touched upon The Hangover and how that film’s success changed his life and enabled him to take on projects that he’s passionate about, like Limitless. Read about all that and more in the interview below.

Can you tell us a little about Eddie Morra? How’d you see him as a character and come to choose this role?

Bradley Cooper: I read the script maybe eight months ago that Leslie Dixon wrote based on this novel by Alan Glynn, an Irishman who wrote I think in 2001 or ‘04 called The Dark Fields. I didn’t read the novel until after I got the role. I didn’t even know it was a novel, but she wrote this incredible script with a phenomenal character. And I met with Neil Burger because I just thought, ‘Oh, wow, to play a guy that goes from A to Z like that would just be incredible,’ and so I met with him and just tried to basically pitch him why I had to play it and I think about six months later, we got the offer to do it and then it was about just hopefully getting it made.

I liked the idea that when we meet [Eddie], it’s not that he feels sorry for himself at all, he’s just actually resigned to the fact that his life is such that his potential wasn’t fulfilled and that’s where we meet him that day. It was cool when he had a book contract when he was 25 and he talks about how great it’s going to be, but when he’s 35 and it still hasn’t been written, it’s just not cool anymore. To then see a guy who goes from this sort of complacency to then having power and what he does with that power and what his plan is, which I still don’t know. His plan was not to make money at all. He says when he comes out of the water, ‘I had a plan, money was going to allow me to get there.’

Once Eddie takes the drug, he finishes his book, but goes through a career change. If you had access to this drug that made you potentially limitless, do you think you’d still be an actor?

I think for sure I’d definitely try to learn as many languages as I could right away and then I would probably, after that, much like he did, learn as many instruments as I could. After that I don’t know, but I’d probably try to get money so I could go around and utilize that. But it would be incredible to just like start jamming with all these great musicians and communicating with people wherever you are in all the different dialects. I don’t know what I’d do after that, but I would still be an actor. Even director. I’d probably start finally getting off my ass and facing the fear because all I really want to do is direct movies anyway; I just haven’t done it.

Like what?

There’s this one story that I absolutely love, but yeah, just to do stories that I love. You have to as a director. There’s got to be something you want to tell and that’s the engine which spurs all of the work you have to do in order to create the story, but you have to love some sort of nugget of what you’re telling to be a filmmaker.

This is very much your thing; most of the film rests on your shoulders. What challenges does that create for you personally? What do you expect from yourself?

I want to answer that in two ways. One, I didn’t feel like it rested on my shoulders because I didn’t direct the movie. It’s Neil Burger’s film. I was allowed the opportunity to help be the guy on the field to play this character who the story revolves around and I loved it, which might end up being my downfall. I made myself a very small window of what I enjoy in this business, which is I love being a big part of the storytelling process. It really fulfills me. Whether or not I’ll get that opportunity again, I don’t know. I hope to, but, you know, if this movie’s successful then I probably will. If it’s not, it’ll be harder to, but I absolutely loved it. I found a hook with Eddie early on, reading the script so I never felt the pressure of, ‘Oh my god. How am I’ – I just couldn’t wait to get out and play him each day. I tend to speak very fast and so I liked these paragraphs I had to memorize and speak because when he’s on the drugs, there’s no “you know” or stutter, anything. He thinks in these succinct paragraphs that just come out. Neil shot a lot of those in one so there was no cut. It was almost like doing a play. I loved that experience.

Regarding roles, when it comes to dramas like Limitless versus something like The Hangover, which is comedic, what mindset do you use to prepare for either role?

Same mindset. It’s playing a role and whatever that happens to be, it may demand different ways in, but the structure’s the same in terms of you have to prepare. Acting’s acting whether it’s comedy or drama; there’s a music to it and the music changes with comedy.

What’s the difference between a kind of adrenaline rush that focuses you when you’re acting and the experience of the drug that gives you access to all of this extra information and knowledge?

I made things specific for me because the idea of reading up on the way neuropathways operate in one’s brain and how synapses functions wouldn’t serve me in terms of organically inhabiting that idea. I had to find something specific for me, which had nothing to do with anything like that in order to play whatever that expansiveness is in my mind. I didn’t choose the feeling of adrenaline from doing something whether it’s playing a sport or getting into a fight or acting on stage just because, to me, my experience sensory-wise with that is – maybe I should have. I probably should have. It would have been better. [Laughs] But it feels like I’m on a drug when those endorphins are released and for me. NZT, it wasn’t a drug. It didn’t feel like it was on a drug; it was just clear and focused. There was a calm to him, to me, when I was doing that that I worked on. And he actually says that when he says, ‘I wasn’t high, I wasn’t wired, I just knew what I wanted to do and how to do it,’ and that was it right there, focused.

You spoke earlier about your choice of storytelling and how you feel the necessity to have a kernel that you love. If you could term that kernel an essential truth, what would it be?

The nugget, well, if it’s a truth, it’s love because I have to love something in order to have it mean something to me, but it changes for everything. There was a moment in the script that I read where I though, ‘Oh yeah, I have to do everything I can to try to play that role.’ It was one moment.

SPOILER ALERT

What was it?

It was when he drinks the blood. I thought I’d never seen that before and if it’s pulled off, the movie works. If it doesn’t, it fails. And in that moment, if the audience is laughing at the movie, the movie doesn’t work, but if they’re laughing because, ‘Oh my – what the hell’s going on, I feel weird,’ and, ‘this is crazy,’ that’s a good thing. But for Eddie, it’s an example of how low or where he’s willing to go to survive and to maintain whatever it is that power that he has and I just sort of loved that, ‘Wow, how do we get from this guy in the beginning of the movie to that moment?’ For every movie it’s been a moment. For Hangover it was the phone call, when I called Tracy.

Did the finished product coincide with your vision of it?

Yes! The blood drinking? Yeah, I mean, we had to adhere to ratings and stuff like that, so it wouldn’t be exactly, but yeah, I’d say so.

END SPOILER ALERT

Can you tell us about Eddie’s enhanced abilities?

Anything he’s ever seen or tasted or smelled since basically in the womb he can recall in an instant and utilize for whatever way he wants and then by the end, this idea that the drug has evolved in such that he’s able to utilize physics in every possible way so that he’s able to read the temperature of where he is when putting his hand on his skin. Somehow he’s able to have a connection with the blood and the flow and whether there’s a blockage and stuff like that. You know, normal shit. [Laughs] And looking at behavior. He could tell that that guy was texting and then he was able to figure out there’s sixty feet and in order to stop the truck and the way the breaks worked that 30 feet wouldn’t be enough, that he’s going to rear end that taxi. So it’s not like he’s omniscient at all. It’s just all logic, but he could do it like that. [Snaps]

And he can see really far.

Well, I mean, not like Superman. But if you saw someone texting, you could probably see their head’s down, but they’re driving. It’s as if you weren’t looking at Carl Van Loon, you were literally watching that van, you could probably tell 60 feet out, 30 feet out that he’s texting. It’s not like his vision all of a sudden has improved because of the drug at all, it’s just how he’s able to utilize his brain.

You’ve always been a successful working actor, but with The Hangover your career really took off. How’d you experience this? Did you ask yourself, ‘Why now?’ And I read somewhere you wanted to become a chef when you were young.

Why am I not a chef? [Laughs] Clearly being a part of a movie that’s so financially lucrative provides opportunities and that’s what that movie did for everybody. And with that comes a higher profile, so you have paparazzi; that was a new thing. You just have to learn to navigate. The great part is that I was able to do a movie like Limitless. Maybe Relativity wouldn’t have hired me to do it if I hadn’t been part of The Hangover, which was so successful. I love cooking. [Laughs] I was more interested to play a chef than to be a chef, so I think that told me early on that acting was where I wanted to go.

There are a lot of rumors that Charlie Sheen is going to be your co-star in Hangover 2. Confirm, deny and also, what are your thoughts about working with him?

Well, unless they have a time machine and we can go back to Bangkok, my understanding is that we already filmed that movie, so I’m not quite sure. It’s an interesting thing to start spreading, but you’d have to be a part of the Starship Enterprise I think in order to make that happen.

Would you want to work with him possibly in the future?

Yeah, I mean, you know, sure.

The Hangover franchise has a major effect on your on screen image. Has that caused you any concern about being locked into a genre?

It doesn’t scare me only because I operate pretty simply; I want to work with great filmmakers and great actors and get better as an actor.

Doing a TV show like Alias, for example, I played probably the nicest guy in the world, this guy Will Tippin who’s a journalist, and I would audition for movies during that time and afterwards and normally the feedback would be, ‘He’s such a nice guy, Bradley. I don’t really see an edge, but such a sweet guy. Please tell him we loved meeting him.’ And then David Dobkin took a real chance and hired me as the heavy in Wedding Crashers to play a sociopathic bad guy and then it became, ‘Bradley, he’s an asshole, right?’ I mean, really! ‘Because it seemed like he’s really an asshole.’ [Laughs] ‘Ah, he wasn’t acting. I could tell there was something really deep going on.’ [Laughs] It’s beyond my control who’s going to cast me or how you’re going to pigeonholed, so for me, it’s just I want to keep doing different things because I want to get better, so hopefully I’ll be hired to do them. So Hangover was a huge success; will it mean that I’ll be cast in movies like that? No, because I won’t do movies like that. But then it also might mean I’ll never work, so we’ll see.

How was it getting to work with Robert De Niro?

Talk about icing on the cake. Never when I first got the movie did I think that Carl Van Loon would be played by Robert De Niro. And my past with him, without him knowing it, goes back a long way, [laughs] just because he’s the reason I became an actor, pretty much. I went to school at the Actor’s Studio MFA program here in New York and he came to our school and I asked him a question and that meant like the world to me because –

Do you remember the question?

I wanted to ask him the question I asked, but I was so scared that it was such a stupid question that I was going to ask some bullshit question about The Mission. There’s a scene in The Mission, this profile shot when he’s with the epee and I was going to say like, ‘Hey, did you train with swords’ and some stupid thing and right before, because we had the microphone thing like this, someone stood up and asked him about The Mission and I thought, ‘Well, I can’t ask him about The Mission.’ So then they came to me and I was sort of standing there and all of a sudden the real question I wanted to ask him came out which was, ‘When you were doing Awakenings,’ there’s a scene where he wants to go for a walk and he has to be interviewed by the medical panel and he’s trying so hard to be normal but whatever he was taking, it started to not work anymore and so he started to get the ticks and one tick was his right hand and he would make up for it by pretending to brush his eyebrow and he was like this when he was talking and I thought, god, it was so genius and I asked him, ‘Is that something you saw people do because they were embarrassed by their ticks, make up for it some way or is that something that just happened?’ And then he literally went like this, he went, [imitating De Niro] ‘Yeah, I didn’t, uh, no I didn’t see anybody do that, but, uh, that’s a good question.’ [Laughs] It was like a beam of light shot into my chest! I was so excited! I never sat down, too and I looked around like, ‘Did everybody hear that? He said that, right?’ Yeah, so that was the first experience with Robert De Niro.

At the beginning of the film, did you ever feel like Eddie, like you were down and out?

Sure. Absolutely. Oh god, yeah. As a human being, yeah. If anybody’s in touch with themselves, do you feel worthless at points in your life and things aren’t going to happen the way you wanted them to? Yeah.

When was that for you?

Today. [Laughs] Just now. Just when I was speaking to that lady.

So, you doubted your career?

Oh, of course!

What was it like doing the scenes where you’re shooting yourself multiple times? How much time did you spend doing those?

That was all Neil Burger who directed the movie who came up with all that. I had only seen in Being John Malkovich. It was very time consuming and it was a movie that we were slammed for time. It was a very get-up-and-go and so it was very sort of mathematical, but I really enjoyed that. I like having to act within the structural confines. There’s something interesting about that because you have to go here and here and you have to be able to be organic in that little space. Not necessarily that stuff because I was just cleaning the apartment.

Writer Leslie Dixon has had a hand in quite a few prominent films from Overboard to Look Who’s Talking Now to Freaky Friday. See a trend? The majority of Dixon’s work falls within the comedy genre. So what’s she doing penning a thriller? Limitless is actually the result of a spontaneous trip to the bookstore.

Limitless is based on the book The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn. The film stars Bradley Cooper as Eddie Morra, a down and out writer who happens upon an illegal miracle drug called NZT. He pops one pill and unlocks portions of his brain the average human’s incapable of accessing, giving him the ability to absorb information at an incredible rate and recall memories dating back to being in his mother’s womb. Like most drugs, NZT has its risks; it’s highly addictive and should you stop taking it, you’ll certainly become ill and likely die. Not only must Eddie maintain his NZT supply, but fight off a jealous loan shark, maintain his new high-profile Wall Street image and do whatever it takes to hold onto his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish), too.

Based on her extensive repertoire, it’s quite obvious Dixon is a natural storyteller, but that ability isn’t limited to writing screenplays; Dixon is packed with fun anecdotes about making Limitless. Hear about everything from Dixon’s tactics for acquiring the rights to the book to developing the film’s tensest moments to her plans for the future in the video interview below.

After wearing two hats on three feature films, Interview with the Assassin, The Illusionist and The Lucky Ones, writer-director Neil Burger decided it was time to narrow his focus and just direct. Conveniently enough, writer-producer Leslie Dixon had a script on her hands, but no director. They joined forces and the result is the wildly intense and visually vivid thriller Limitless.

The film focuses on a drug called NZT, a pill packing the power to give a person the ability to use 100% of his or her brain. For Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), that means the ability to emerge from the foggy slump of an uninspired writer and step into the illuminated world of a high-powered financial consultant.

Yes, the character development starts with what’s in Dixon’s script, but from there, it’s all up to Burger and he certainly seized the opportunity to use the mind-bending nature of the topic to his advantage. While we get film after film saturated in CGI and all sorts of digital effects, it’s not very often you come across a piece that uses those resources in a realistic manner. Well, brace yourself because that’s exactly what Burger set out to do in Limitless and the results are wholly consuming and make for a fantastically tense and engaging end product.

How does he do it? Hear about that and much more straight from Burger himself in the video interview below.

Neil Burger's Dark Fields adaptation spent a long time kicking around in development while his intended leading man, Shia LaBeouf, either fought off evil Transformers or recovered from his broken hand. But now that Shia is out and Bradley Cooper has replaced him, things are humming along nicely and the cast is getting even better. Variety reports that Robert De Niro will be joining the cast of the film, which starts filming in May in Philadelphia.

De Niro will play a financial mogul hot on the tail of Cooper's character, who discovers a designer drug that makes him smarter and basically better than the rest of us. While most people might worry about De Niro in the part-- he hasn't exactly been in the habit of making good movies lately-- I've got my questions about Cooper. He's already so smarmy and self-satisfied in his roles that I can only imagine him being intolerable when made smarter. Though with De Niro hunting him, I can only imagine Cooper's character will be facing some serious consequences for all this newfound intelligence. So long as he takes at least a punch or two, I can probably get over my aversion to his stupid grin.