‘The Giver’
From left: Brenton Thwaites, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Taylor Swift and Cameron Monaghan, who hit New York City's Ziegfeld Theatre on Monday night for the film's world premiere.
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Image Credit: Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision -
Brenton Thwaites
Image Credit: Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision The 1993 Newbery Medal-winning book follows Jonas (played by Brenton Thwaites, who wore Gucci), a boy who was born into a seemingly ideal, if colorless, community of conformity and is assigned to be its Receiver of Memories. As he undergoes training with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who carries all of the society's forgotten memories, he learns about the dark sides of the supposed "utopia" of Sameness.
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Katie Holmes
Image Credit: Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision Katie Holmes, who plays Jonas' mother, wore a Zac Posen dress with Lorraine Schwartz jewelry.
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Meryl Streep
Image Credit: Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision Meryl Streep plays the community's Chief Elder — a role that was expanded from the book. Director Phillip Noyce said of Streep's not-so-villainous presence onscreen: "She's advocating something that's very seductive — a world without pain! Conflict! War! You don't have to wake up to murder and mayhem! It's not that hard to see something in what she's saying, but the way Meryl says it, it's even harder not to accept it because she's convincing."
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Susan Geston, Jeff Bridges
Image Credit: Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision Producer and star Jeff Bridges (with wife Susan Geston), who paid tribute to Robin Williams just after hearing word of his death. "I am filled with such mixed emotions tonight," said Bridges when introducing The Giver, noting the irony of his title role as being the emotional leader of the community. "It's very difficult for me to be here with all these emotions and feelings — wonderful, I must say, but as with many elements in life, there is an underbelly, and we're losing a dear, dear friend, Robin Williams. Such a brilliant human being. My heart goes out to his family." He then looked toward the Ziegfeld ceiling and laughed, "I feel Robin coming in now; he says, 'Get on with it, Bridges! On with the show!'"
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Odeya Rush
Image Credit: Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision Odeya Rush, who plays Fiona, wore a Georges Hobeika dress and told THR that she'd be most incomplete without love if she were forced to take the community's daily injections.
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Taylor Swift
Image Credit: Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision Taylor Swift, who plays the memory of Rosemary, said on the red carpet that if she were assigned to a role in the community, she'd prefer the caretaker job of Odeya Rush's character, Fiona.
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Lois Lowry, Phillip Noyce
Image Credit: Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision The Giver author Lois Lowry posed with director Phillip Noyce at the premiere. Said Lowry of the appeal of dystopian literature: "It's the fact that a young person can make a difference in the world — here's a young boy who perceives the hypocrisy of the governing body, and seeks to change things. There's an image in the memories that he receives of the young man in front of the tank and Tiananmen Square — that's not in the book, and when I saw that, it sent shivers up my spine. That's what the boy represents."
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Cameron Monaghan
Cameron Monaghan, who plays Jonas' friend Asher, enjoyed the afterparty with friends at the Central Park Boathouse. He wore a sleek Bar III suit.
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Emma Tremblay
Like Odeya Rush, Emma Tremblay noted that she'd be most incomplete without love if she lived in the Giver community.
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Scooter Braun
Executive producer Scooter Braun said of joining the project as a longtime fan of the book, "I wanted to see how the end of the whole journey would translate on film, because you're not really sure in the book, if that [ending] is real. … You want to be optimistic as a kid that it's all OK!"
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Lindsay Ellingson
Model Lindsay Ellingson stopped by the world premiere.
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Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep
Onscreen enemies Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep enjoy the evening at the afterparty. "Jeff plays the spiritual leader, and she's the political leader, and they each have an agenda," said author Lois Lowry of the two. "There's conflict, and yet when they each present their side of this issue at the end of the movie, you understand where they're both coming from. Though [Streep is] chilling in the role, she becomes sympathetic."
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Emma Tremblay, Nikki Silver
Actress Emma Tremblay and producer Nikki Silver share a hug at the afterparty. Die-hard fans of the novel have expressed their concerns about the decision to make the characters older, but Silver credits The Weinstein Co. for the strategic move: "We started to see that the book would appeal to a wider audience."
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Katie Holmes, Spike Lee
Katie Holmes greeted Spike Lee at the starlit afterparty held at the Central Park Boathouse.
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Lois Lowry, Phillip Noyce, Neil Koenigsberg
From left: author Lois Lowry, director Phillip Noyce and producer Neil Koenigsberg at the premiere's afterparty.
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Odeya Rush, Brenton Thwaites
Odeya Rush and Brenton Thwaites struck a pose between entertaining guests out on the courtyard after the screening.
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Ryan Tedder
OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder performed the film's song "Ordinary Human" (which he wrote at Starbucks!) just before the screening.