Robert Zemeckis and Charlie Kaufman Team Up To Dethrone ‘Hunger Games’ With YA Adaptation ‘Chaos…

By  · Published on September 10th, 2013

Robert Zemeckis and Charlie Kaufman Team Up To Dethrone ‘Hunger Games’ With YA Adaptation ‘Chaos Walking’

The Hunger Games is great and all, but what will we do when the politically tinged adventures of Katniss Everdeen come to a close? Society will need some new plucky teenage hero to rally behind and to spend lots and lots of money on.

Keep an eye out for Chaos Walking, as it may just be the next big thing. Coming from a series of YA novels by Patrick Ness, Chaos Walking is your usual teenage-aged fare, with dystopian futures, corrupt politics and a revolt of the masses. But wait a moment before groaning and turning away from yet another YA series- at least Chaos Walking has a neat gimmick. In this particular far-off future, everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts at all times. Neat, right? And what makes things even neater is that Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) will be handling script duties for this project.

But the biggest (and newest) news comes in the form of a director. The Wrap is now reporting that Robert Zemeckis is in negotiating his way into the director’s chair for Chaos Walking. Perhaps he’ll try to bring the charm of his 80’s classics like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit for a more comedic and family-friendly YA series. Or maybe the dystopian, privacy-free future of Chaos Walking will have turned its citizens into dead-eyed, hollow husks. Allow Zemeckis to work a little of his Polar Express CGI magic and the results will have audiences paralyzed with fear.

Either way, Kaufman’s still writing the script- how bad could it be?