With one franchise already in her back pocket, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” star Daisy Ridley is eyeing another popular series, this time in the YA genre.
Ridley is attached to star in Lionsgate’s adaptation of popular young adult novel “Chaos Walking” by Patrick Ness. Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer confirmed the casting Thursday on the company’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts, saying that film would go into production next year. Doug Liman is signed on as director. Jamie Linden penned the most recent script with Allison Shearmur and Doug Davison producing.
“Chaos Walking: The Knife of Never Letting Go,” published in 2008 as the first book in a trilogy, is set in a dystopian world where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts.
The book is centered on the only boy in a town of men, who makes a startling discovery that forces him to flee with only his dog in hand. With the townspeople in pursuit, the duo stumbles upon a strange and silent girl. They set off on a white-knuckle journey in which the boy must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
For what it's worth, I quite enjoyed the book series. Ridley is however considerably older than the character I believe she's playing, but whatever.
For anyone interested, the books are - at least in my opinion - far better than your standard YA fare.
GeneMod wrote:For what it's worth, I quite enjoyed the book series. Ridley is however considerably older than the character I believe she's playing, but whatever.
For anyone interested, the books are - at least in my opinion - far better than your standard YA fare.
How would you compare them with THG? I've only red that and Harry Potter of course.
m4st4 wrote:
How would you compare them with THG? I've only red that and Harry Potter of course.
Tonally, I suppose they'd be more in line with the later Harry Potter books and THG (though I've only read the first book of that series). They explore the grey area of morality through the eyes of children, and a lot of pretty disturbing shit happens - particularly in the second book.
This movie, which is based on the first book (The Knife of Never Letting Go) is by far the lightest of the three, and perhaps the only member of the trilogy to capture that sense of wonder seen in Harry Potter. The other two, not so much.
Overall, I'd recommend them if you're a fan of the genre. Even if you're not, you'd probably still at least enjoy them. I know I did.
But when you're the lead of Star Wars (the most successful franchise ever) why in the world would you also want to lead a young adult franchise from a 3rd rate studio coming off a complete failure for this genre?
I feel like Ridley is taking too much advice from greedy Hollywood suits rather than making savvy choices that can give her a chance to show her range and provide stability.
