Naomi Watts Joins 'Insurgent'

The new wave of YA films is turning into a great way for a set of well-established women to find a new audience and collect a solid payday at the same time. Meryl Streep is in The Giver; Patricia Clarkson has a part in The Maze Runner; and Julianne Moore shows up in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. The film Divergent already counted Kate Winslet among its cast, and the sequel, Insurgent, had locked in Octavia Spencer. Now Insurgent will also feature Naomi Watts. And Watts won't just do the one film. She'll be part of the series going forward. 

THR reports that the adaptation of the second novel in Veronica Roth's series will feature Watts as Evelyn, the leader of the Factionless tribe. Watts will be present for all of the next three films in the series, starting with Insurgent and moving on to the two-film adaptation of the final novel in the trilogy.Insurgent is shooting now, with Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q and Mekhi Phifer. Robert Schwentke is directing from a screenplay by Brian Duffield and Akiva Goldsman.

Lionsgate will release Insurgent on Friday, March 20, 2015. The third and fourth installments in the series, Allegiant – Parts 1 and 2, are slated for release on March 18, 2016 and March 24, 2017.

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.