The Weinstein Company has released a new behind-the-scenes featurette for director Philip Noyce’s (Salt) adaptation of the Lois Lowry novel The Giver.  The story takes place in a utopian society where all memories of the past reside with a sage figure known as “The Giver”.  Jeff Bridges plays the titular character and Brenton Thwaites (Maleficent) plays a young boy who has been selected to be the new Giver.  In this featurette, Lowry explains the inspiration that led to her writing the book as we also get a look at new footage from the film.  It’s been a long time since I read the novel, but I don’t particularly remember the world being so blatantly science-fiction-looking.  It makes sense that The Weinstein Company would want the marketing to mirror a film as successful as The Hunger Games, but it risks making oblivious audiences think The Giver is a ripoff instead of a book whose publication precedes The Hunger Games by 15 years.

Hit the jump to watch the new The Giver featurette.  The film also stars Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Cameron Monaghan, and Taylor Swift.  The Giver opens August 15th.

The Giver featurette via Yahoo! Movies.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Giver:

The haunting story of THE GIVER centers on Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. The film is based on Lois Lowry’s beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner the 1994 Newbury Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.