British Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet has been cast in upcoming young adult film Divergent, boosting the profile of the latest adaptation from a bestselling novel to the big screen.

Film studio Summit Entertainment said that Winslet, 37, will play the cold and unlikeable Jeanine Matthews in the film set in a dystopian future.

Divergent, based on the first of a trilogy of novels by Veronica Roth, is set in a society that is divided into five factions that define how a person lives their life.

The Abnegation people are selfless while the Erudite devote themselves to a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. Winslet will play the leader of the Erudite, Summit said in a statement.

The studio previously announced the casting of rising star Shailene Woodley, 21, and British newcomer Theo James, 28.

Divergent, due for release in March 2014, is the latest young adult novel to be translated to the big screen following the conclusion of lucrative franchise The Twilight Saga and the success last year of The Hunger Games, starring new Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence.

The five Twilight films, which followed the romance between a vampire, human and werewolf, grossed more than €2.5 billion at the global box office and put studio Summit into Hollywood’s big leagues.

Film studio Lions Gate Entertainment, which acquired Summit for €319 million last year, released The Hunger Games in March 2012. It grossed more than €534 million worldwide.

The next instalment of the Hunger Games franchise is due out in November this year, while The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, another adaptation of a young adult novel with supernatural and dystopian themes, is due in US theatres in August.

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