The film adaptation of the novel, “The Giver” is moving forward as the cast list begins to fill up. You might remember the novel from your 5th grade reading class or from reading it on your own on a hot summer day when you parents couldn’t take you to the pool. Announced this week, Meryl Streep has officially joined the cast of the film joining Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaites.

“The Giver” was written by Lois Lowry and published in 1993 marketed as a young adult sci-fi novel. Set in a distant future, the book tells of a society in which the entire range of human emotion has been eradicated by removing any trace of history. Only one individual in the society — called “the Giver” — is tasked with remembering the past in case it becomes necessary to make use of it. A twelve-year-old boy, Jonas, is tasked to become the next Giver in line and has his whole world thrown into question when he begins tutelage with the previous, elderly Giver.

Streep will portray the society’s chief elder in the adaptation.

Production on The Giver is set to begin in South Africa this October. It will be directed by Phillip Noyce. A release date as not yet been revealed.