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Divergent sequel filming will include Chicago River

Photo by Steven Dahlman

(Above) How Chicago and its river are imagined in the 2014 science fiction film Divergent. (Click on image to view larger version.)

September 21, 2014 – Filming for the sequel to Divergent will include a shot along the Chicago River.

Set in the year 2150, Insurgent is based on the novel by Veronica Roth about a futuristic society divided into factions.

The river footage will not be for an action scene, according to a supervising location manager, just second unit filming along the river from a boat and then a helicopter.

Janice Polley says they plan to get the shot early on Saturday, October 18.

From 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. all of the bridges from Columbus Drive to Dearborn Street will be raised as two boats travel west down the river.

The bridges will be lowered and open to traffic for 30 minutes. Then from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., a helicopter will fly through to film along the river. The bridges will be closed to traffic during that time and the river will be closed to boats.

The bridges are scheduled to be raised again at 9 a.m. to allow sailboats to get from Lake Michigan to winter storage.

Divergent had an estimated $85 million budget. It filmed in Chicago in July 2013 and was released in March 2014. The sequel is being made under the code name Mineral.

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