From great suffering comes this impressive second trailer for THE GIVER

Way, way before Katniss Everdeen and friends started running around, and YA was merely another way of saying “Yes”, Lois Lowry wrote “The Giver”. Her tale told about a colourless (literally) dystopian future in which humanity’s feelings are suppressed in a totalitarian – but misguided – means of keeping the peace, and in which a teenager has to uncover the truth about themselves and the world.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because so many “YA” novels since Lowry’s award winning 1994 novel have gratuitously borrowed from this formula. And while all the Hunger Games’ and Divergents were doing their thing, Jeff Bridges was trying to get Lowry’s novel made for the big screen. It’s taken him just under two decades, but now the film is finally here. And by getting Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger, Salt, Patriot Games) behind the camera, and assembling a top notch cast, including Bridges himself and some fellow seriously talented Oscar winners, The Giver may just prove that copies don’t stand a chance to one of the originals.

The haunting story of “The Giver” centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community’s memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community’s secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined – a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all – a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before. “The Giver” is based on Lois Lowry’s beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

The Giver also stars Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush and Taylor Swift, and is scheduled for release on August 15, 2014.

Last Updated: June 6, 2014