Insurgent started filming today

Lionsgate let slip today that “Insurgent”, the follow-up to this year’s “Divergent”, has commenced filming.

The sequel stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James and Kate Winslet, with Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer joining returning supporting players Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q and Mekhi Phifer.

Based on author Veronica Roth’s New York Times best seller, the film is being directed by Robert Schwentke from a screenplay by Brian Duffield and Akiva Goldsman. Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing the film through their Red Wagon Entertainment banner along with Pouya Shahbazian. Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman are executive producing through their Mandeville Films banner along with Neil Burger and Barry Waldman.

Lionsgate will release Insurgent theatrically in North America through its Summit Entertainment label on Friday, March 20, 2015.

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.

“Divergent” was written by first time author Veronica Roth and has topped The New York Times Best Seller list since being published in April 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Publishers. Book sales of the “Divergent” trilogy have surged to nearly 22 million copies worldwide, up from 17 million at the time of the first film’s March 21 release.

Insurgent has grossed more than $260 million at the worldwide box office, making the film Lionsgate’s highest-grossing domestic box office release outside “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” franchises.

The third and fourth installments in the series, Allegiant – Parts 1 & 2, are slated for release on March 18, 2016 and March 24, 2017, respectively.

Erik Feig, Co-President of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, and Gillian Bohrer, Lionsgate’s EVP of Production & Development, are overseeing the project for the studio.