Jeff Bridges Wants to Adapt The Giver
Lois Lowry’s classic young adult novel The Giver is headed for the big screen courtesy of actor Jeff Bridges’ persistence. According to Variety, Bridges has wanted to adapt the 1993 science fiction book about a world that has been rendered average and bland.
Bridges and Nikki Silver have reacquired the rights to the novel and have hired Vadim Perelman (The House of Sand and Fog) to write the screen adaptation and nearly got to direct a version in 2006. No other hires have been announced but Bridges is now at an age where he could make a convincing title character.
The Giver is the keeper of memory, of experiences good and bad, for a society that strives for a moderate approach to all things. When young Jonas is selected as the next Giver, he forges a relationship with the far older man and both recognize that the world they inhabit is far from ideal.
Lowry won the Newbery Medal for the novel which remains a high school staple. It has appeared on many best book lists and has endured as a classic example of a dystopian society. When Bridges’ daughter read the book for school, he became intrigued and imagined it for a vehicle for his father, the great Lloyd Bridges.
Lowry loosely connected Gathering Blue and Messenger into an overall trilogy that remains a popular offering bookstores and libraries.