Lionsgate Aims to Follow 'Hunger Games' with 'Chaos Walking' Movie

It will be a while yet before we see the big-screen premiere of "The Hunger Games," which will kick off a four-movie series adapted from the novels of Suzanne Collins. But that doesn't mean Lionsgate isn't already banking on a big success.

In fact, Lionsgate is so confident that the "Hunger Games" series will be a big hit that they're already planning to adapt another young adult book trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic future. The new project is to adapt the "Chaos Walking" trilogy from author Patrick Ness.

Could this be the first blockbuster young adult adaptation to come from a male author? Though the "Harry Potter" series featured a male protagonist it definitely spoke to female readers/viewers, and the connection to young women with the "Twilight" series is well-documented. "Hunger Games" features a female protagonist as well, but "Chaos Walking" features a male hero, and is written by a man. We'll see if that changes the target audience or affects the success of the films.

As for the story, here's how Lionsgate describes the "Chaos Walking" trilogy:

"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."

Pretty interesting about the mind-reading stuff, and the whole "corrupt autocrat" waging war on an "indigenous alien race" brings "Avatar" to mind. I haven't read it, but it definitely sounds like this series could translate to the screen well.

Have you read the "Chaos Walking" books? Let us know what you think about them!