A story that has was printed over 20 years ago and a movie that’s been in development for about eighteen years has finally found it’s way onto the big screen. From novelist Lois Lowry’s The Giver, comes the motion picture written for the screen by Michael Mitnick and Robert Weide, produced by Jeff Bridges and Nikki Silver and directed by Phillip Noyce.

Entertainment Affair was at the press conference where part of the cast and filmmakers talked about the process of making The Giver. A film they agree was worth the wait. Jeff Bridges said, “So much of the success of a film… people seeing it depends not only on casting the actors, but who’s gonna be the director, whose gonna be cinematographer, and all of those slots were just filled in such a beautiful way that the movie kind of transcended my high expectations, really for it.”

This fascinating story centers on a bright and intelligent young man named Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites, who lives in a ‘seemingly ideal world of conformity and contentment’. Everyone appears to be happy. The people take injections daily and are all deprived of their memories. They live in a time called “Sameness”. Chief Elder, played by Award Winning actress Meryl Streep, selects Jonas to be the receiver of memories. This is a great honor since the receiver of memories is the keeper of the ancient memories, before living in a colorless world. He enters training with the current Giver, played by producer and Oscar winning actor Jeff Bridges. After the two begin to work together, Jonas views the world differently. He learns about joy, pleasure, sadness, true pain and the emotions that make us human. He doesn’t understand how some things that are so wrong, are not for the people living in the time of ‘Sameness’. After realizing it has to change, the Giver and Jonas work together to bring back the memories to the community.

Thwaites told us that being part of this story and working with great actors was a dream come true. “When you get this gift, this opportunity you kinda have to pinch yourself every morning before you go to work. It was like that every day so it was great.”

After Jonas begins to experience emotions, he falls in love with his friend Fiona played by the talented Odeya Rush. She told us how much she loved the story and a little insight on what her character Fiona goes through. “I think my character takes such a journey too because I’m not completely like the Giver and Jonas, I’m not fully feeling things, and I’m not getting memories, but still I start off really naive and happy and thinking I’m in a good place, and then once I stop taking my injections it’s just kind of like a state of confusion, and I don’t really understand what I’m feeling, and he’s trying to explain it to me, and then towards the end it kind of goes to anger because I realize the cruelty behind this community, so I think that arc was really interesting and it’s such a great story. I’m really fortunate.”

Another important character in this film that really helps us see Jonas’s transition is Asher, friend of Jonas, played by Cameron Monaghan. “I read the book when I was auditioning. It’s just a really beautiful story of humanity and what it means to be human and love and all these great things. And you know, it was just something I wanted to be a part of,” commented Cameron.

While the actors all love the book and its adaptation, Director Phillip Noyce explained that it was the book that attracted him into making the film. “It was the ideas of the book. I think we all, well I know I do, I embrace technology, but I also fear it. In some ways I think that we are losing contact with each other. So the portrait of the future society where technology ruled completely seemed like it was something like looking in the mirror every morning and not actually speaking to my friends, but just sending them one word-texts and so it felt to me like it was a cautionary tale about the future, and about the present as well.”

The story takes place in a utopian world, but the similarities of the issues faced really urge to question one of the many truths told by Meryl Streep’s character (Chief Elder). Phillip elaborates, “And you know, everyday I wake up at the moment, I keep thinking about Meryl Streep and that scene toward the end of the movie where she’s arguing with Jeff’s character and says, ‘Every time human beings have a choice, they make the wrong choice.’ There’s something right about that and yet, would we ever want to give up freedom of choice? No, we wouldn’t… That’s what made me want to make it into a movie. Because I think they’re fundamental question’s about what makes us human. That’s what Lois has forced us to consider.”

All of the actors in the film agree that being part of this project is special. Among them was Katie Holmes, who plays the mother of Jonas. “There’s no pain. For an actor, you’re always trying to emote, but you can’t. So it was interesting. And to play someone who, playing Brenton’s mom and having him have these experiences that were so foreign to my character and also being guardian of the rules of this world, was really interesting and quite a challenge, but mostly it was just an honor to be a part of something that I think is a very valuable piece of work.” To add, Bridges also said, “This movie, this is a one-of-a-kind experience for me, I’ve never had that kind of passion for a project. I’ve been holding it for eighteen years so it’s very gratifying to see it finally come to fruition.”

Like any other famous book adaptation, readers and fans of the book usually have expectations. Novelist Lois Lowry confirms the writers and the cast did an amazing job. “I’ve been watching this project for many, many years, for the past year and a half of course, night and day, and it’s been wonderful. I’m accustomed to sitting alone in a room and doing what I do, and controlling everything that I do. I get to write the screenplay and the dialogue, and I design the costumes and the set, and I choose the camera angles when I’m writing a book. So, then to relinquish it to a collaborative effort is very different and interesting to watch. Not threatening, because I know it was in good hands all along. Over the years, I talked to Jeff from time to time, and I could perceive his passion and that it was in the right hands.”

Many students in the U.S. have read the original book, The Giver by Lois Lowry, as it is in many schools reading lists. Others are catching up and falling in love with this novel, which has sold over 12 million copies worldwide and also won the 1994 Newbery Medal. It’s an emotional thrilling experience that raises questions, thoughts and possibilities. The Giver was written and adapted for the big screen because it is a story to be told.

The Giver opens in theaters Friday, August 12^th, 2014.