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With The Divergent Series: Insurgent arriving in theaters March 20th, Christina sat down with producer Todd Lieberman yesterday to talk about the film. While we'll have that full interview soon, Lieberman also touched on a few upcoming projects including Disney's live-action reimagining of Beauty and The Beast, the next Divergent Series sequel, Allegiant, and why he'll "never say die" to the possibility of a The Fighter sequel.

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Image via Disney

Lieberman revealed that Beauty and the Beast and The Divergent Series: Allegiant Part One both start filming on May 18th:

We’re starting to shoot Beauty and the Beast for Disney and Allegiant on the same day, May 18th. Beauty and the Beast we’re wildly excited about. That’s shooting in London.  We’ve got Emma Watson, we’ve got Bill Condon directing, and Stephen Chbosky wrote our script. It’s really fun, and we couldn’t be happier about that. And we have Allegiant.

On the Beauty and the Beast update, Lieberman also said the film stick to a "classic" approach to the material, but will introduce "new elements" and new characters.

On the subject of the first Allegiant movie, Lieberman teased a visually mind-blowing film set in a "whole different world":

I don’t want to promise too much, but I can say that the things that we’ve talked about have been very, very cool. There’s going to be some really mind-blowing visuals. Those who have read the book know where it goes. It goes into a whole different world, and we’re really excited to explore that.

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He also touched on the Allegiant novel's controversial ending:

We’re taking Allegiant and splitting it into two, so the first part of it won’t go that far. But yeah, the book had that ending, and there was certainly controversy over it. Personally, I feel that it’s an important arc for that character. But we haven’t actually discussed too much of that yet...they’re beloved characters. I can see how that would cause a controversy. Sometimes you have to make bold choices, creatively. I’m always in favor of that.

When asked if it was time to admit that a sequel to The Fighter just isn't going to happen, Leiberman remained surprisingly optimistic:

Boy, that thing! I’ll say never say die. There’s definitely interest in it. It’s another one I don’t know the answer to. I can tell you that there’s interest. If it will happen or not, I don’t know. If it does, I’m thrilled. It’s a world I love and characters I love, too. It was an amazingly fun time.

Check back for our full interview soon. The Divergent Series: Insurgent hits theaters March 20th.

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