'The Giver' movie adaptation gets closer

'The Giver,' which will be released on Aug. 15, stars Brenton Thwaites as protagonist Jonas, actor Jeff Bridges as the Giver, and Meryl Streep as the community's Chief Elder.

The movie adaptation of the classic dystopian novel “The Giver” by Lois Lowry is almost here.

“The Giver,” which was first published in 1993, centers on a boy named Jonas (Brenton Thwaites of “Maleficent”) who is chosen to be the Receiver of Memories, which means that he must be trained by the previous Receiver (Jeff Bridges). Jonas gradually begins to understand what his community has given up by eschewing emotions and pain.

The movie also stars Meryl Streep as the Chief Elder, “True Blood” actor Alexander Skarsgard and Katie Holmes as Jonas’s parents, actress Odeya Rush of “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” as Fiona, an acquaintance of Jonas’s, and singer Taylor Swift as Rosemary (who, according to Yahoo, is the Giver’s daughter). 

Lowry recently told The New York Times that she had given those behind the movie some advice about how to handle the relationship between Jonas and Fiona.

“I remember seeing the costume designs for the female lead, Fiona – in the book she’s 12, and in the movie she’s 16,” she said. “I advised them that some of the costumes were too sexy. And so the hem was dropped a little bit. I asked them: ‘Please don’t turn this into a teenage romance.’”

Meanwhile, Thwaites explained to MTV why the role of Jonas appealed to him.

“He has such a complex journey throughout the film,” Thwaites said. “He is literally chosen to ‘learn the history of the world.’ I thought, ‘I would like to learn me some history of the world from Jeff Bridges. Let’s do this!’”

And Rush discussed with the Boston Globe how her character was expanded for the movie. 

“She’s mentioned a few times in the book but she’s not a key part of Jonas’s journey,” Rush said. “I think she just puts her foot down more in the film. She goes through a bigger transformation. I think that also comes with making her older, because I think, at 12, there’s only so much you can take.”

"The Giver" will be released on Aug. 15.