IMAX Corporation and Summit Entertainment, a Lionsgate company, today announced that Divergent, the first installment of the futuristic action-adventure trilogy based on Veronica Roth's The New York Times bestselling novels, will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX format and released in IMAX theatres worldwide beginning March 21, 2014.

Divergent is directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist) from a screenplay by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor and Neil Burger and stars Golden Globe nominee Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), Theo James and Academy Award winner Kate Winslet (The Reader, Titanic). The film is a thrilling adventure set in a future world where people are divided into distinct factions based on their personalities. Tris Prior (Woodley) is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy to destroy all Divergents, she must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it's too late.

Here's what IMAX CEO Greg Foster had to say about Divergent in a statement.

"With The Hunger Games and Twilight franchises, our Lionsgate and Summit partners have proven to be a powerful force in adapting novels for the global theatrical marketplace. We're thrilled that IMAX audiences across the globe are going to be able to experience the first installment of this next highly successful franchise in the most immersive way possible."

Lionsgate chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger had this to say in a joint statement.

"We're delighted to continue our successful collaboration with IMAX, with whom we have already partnered on the global blockbuster Hunger Games and Twilight Saga franchises, and we're especially pleased that we can introduce our newest young adult franchise, Divergent, to the movie going public in the premium IMAX format that celebrates its status as a special and memorable event."

The IMAX release of Divergent will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience with proprietary IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX's customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

About Divergent

The extremely popular novel Divergent was written by first time author Veronica Roth and has topped The New York Times Best Sellers list ever since being published in April of 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Publishers. The book was written by Roth while she was earning her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University. She followed her first novel with the book Insurgent, which has also made its way to the #1 position on specific The New York Times Best Sellers lists. To date, book sales are over 3 million copies for both novels combined, and both titles are HarperCollins' best-selling e-books ever. The studio acquired the film rights to the novel in early 2011 several months before the book Divergent was published.

Divergent marks another strategic foray for Summit into producing material for young adults, building on Summit and corporate parent Lionsgate's leadership in the young-adult genre. Summit's The Twilight Saga franchise has grossed more than $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office, and the first film of Lionsgate's The Hunger Games franchise is the 13th highest-grossing North American release of all time.

Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing the film via their Red Wagon Entertainment banner along with Pouya Shahbazian. Divergent will be released theatrically in North America in The Hunger Games slot on Friday, March 21, 2014.