Young adult literature-turned cinema can manage boffo business at the box office for studios, yet it seems as though for every Twilight or The Hunger Games - both massive hits (financially-speaking) - there are two to three times as many that are produced that bring in only decent returns (Percy Jackson, Eragon) and even more that either attract limited attention from the paying masses or flat-out bomb in theaters - such as Beautiful Creatures, The Host and The Mortal Instruments (all of which opened in theaters earlier this year).
Chaos Walking, which is based upon the sci-fi YA novel trilogy authored by Patrick Ness, is one of the next contenders in line, when it comes to grabbing a piece of the lucrative YA movie box office pie. Similar to the Hunger Games movies, the first installment in the CW series - drawing inspiration from Ness' first book The Knife of Never Letting Go (published in 2008) - has managed to attract the attention of accredited screenwriting talent; here, in the form of Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
The Wrap is reporting that Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis - who returned to the world of live-action filmmaking (following a decade of churning out motion-capture features) last year with the lauded Denzel Washington alcoholism drama Flight - has spent the last several month giving thought to selecting Chaos Walking as his next directorial effort. However, their sources are now indicating that Zemeckis could finalize a deal before this month draws to a close (assuming the negotiation process goes smoothly).
Here is an official description of Ness' source novels, as was released two years ago when Hunger Games studio Lionsgate announced the movie adapation:
The Carnegie Medal winning books are set in a dystopian future with humans colonizing a distant earth-like planet. When an infection called the Noise suddenly makes all thought audible, privacy vanishes in an instant. In the ensuing chaos, a corrupt autocrat threatens to take control of the human settlements and wage war with the indigenous alien race, and only young Todd Hewitt holds the key to stopping planet wide-destruction.
Certain elements in the Chaos Walking series - like the male protagonist and extraterrestrial setting - should make it easier for the series to stand apart from Hunger Games (despite the pair sharing certain thematic elements), as well as next year's addition to the YA sci-fi sub-genre: the dystopia film Divergent. Moreover, the idea of a Kaufman-penned script being realized into cinematic form by the man who gave us the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and Castaway... well, that possibility alone is reason enough to be interested in seeing how this particular YA flick turns out.
Does Chaos Walking sound more or less interesting to you than other recent YA movies, given the basic premise and creative talent involved?
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We'll keep you updated on the developing Chaos Walking movie adaptation as more information is made available.
Source: The Wrap