Charlie Kaufman is adapting Lionsgate's latest young-adult franchise, Chaos Walking

By Sean O'Neal | April 24, 2012 | 5:34pm

Aux Features Film

Not content to have The Hunger Games and Ender's Game already, apparently, Lionsgate continues to hoard enough dystopian young-adult fiction to survive any post-apocalyptic contingency (scenarios that involve surviving by somehow using stories where tough kids best autocrats and/or aliens, anyway). Its latest acquisition is the Patrick Ness series Chaos Walking, and—perhaps as a response to the collective shrug that greeted the choices of Gary Ross and Francis Lawrence for Hunger Games—the studio is trying something a little more unpredictable by hiring Charlie Kaufman to adapt the first book, and presumably not do it all crazy-like.

Kaufman has dabbled before in mainstream moviemaking that does not comment at the same time on the process of moviemaking, notably contributing some script punch-ups to Kung Fu Panda 2, but Chaos Walking would represent his foray into all-in franchise work. Fortunately it's got some potential hallmarks of a Kaufman-friendly story, concerning human colonists of a faraway planet who are on the brink of war with indigenous aliens, after an infection dubbed "The Noise" makes all thoughts audible—and Kaufman does enjoy both fantastical conceits and a good interior monologue.