After setting Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson on the road to superstardom with Twilight and now cloaking Amanda Seyfried in Red Riding Hood, you’d think Catherine Hardwicke would be looking to work with, say, the elderly just for a nice change of pace. But no, she’s instead in early talks to tackle an adaptation of young adult novel series Maze Runners.
20th Century Fox is looking to turn writer James Dashner’s first book, The Maze Runner, into a new franchise. Dashner plans to write the screenplay himself, assuming he has time in between writing the next two titles in what is a planned trilogy.
The novel finds a lad named Thomas waking up in a weird place known as the Glade with zero memory of who he is or where he belongs aside from his first name. The Glade itself is bordered by high stone walls, which protect the boys inside it from Grievers, the monstrous inhabitants of the maze that surrounds the stone fortress.
Recruits known as Runners strike out into the labyrinth beyond the walls, aiming to map the ever-changing puzzle in the hopes of finding their way out. When he arrives, Thomas shows real aptitude as a Runner, but also causes strange things to happen, which makes his colleagues suspicious. Oh, and then a girl shows up, throwing everything into chaos as she announces that the end is near. Tch… Girls, eh? Always bringing apocalyptic warnings, or shopping or something.
It sounds like something Hardwicke can handle, but after her most recent project – young adult adaptation Maximum Ride – got shoved into turnaround, will she be as willing to jump in again?