Hail Reaper. A “Red Rising” movie is officially in the works at Paramount, with Francis Lawrence — the director behind the biggest “Hunger Games” films — attached to adapt Pierce Brown’s bestselling 2014 debut novel.
The studio has picked up the rights to the hugely popular sci-fi series and set the film based on the first book. Justin Rhodes will write the script, while Lawrence will produce alongside Cameron MacConomy for About.Blank and Francesco Goedhuis. Author Pierce Brown is on board as an executive producer, giving fans at least some comfort that the adaptation will respect the source material.
Why This One Matters
“Red Rising” has been a white whale for adaptations for over a decade. Brown’s six-book (and counting) saga — a brutal, class-warfare epic about a lowly miner named Darrow who infiltrates a ruthless ruling caste — has a fanbase as obsessive as anything in modern sci-fi. Previous attempts to bring it to screens, including a long-gestating television version, never got off the ground.
Lawrence is a shrewd pick for the material. He steered “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and both “Mockingjay” films, as well as the 2023 prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” — meaning he has spent more time than anyone navigating dystopian YA-to-blockbuster adaptations with rabid fandoms and studio expectations pulling in opposite directions.
What Comes Next
No casting, no start date and no release window have been announced yet, so “Red Rising” remains firmly in early development. Paramount will presumably want to move fast, though: the books have only grown in stature since the series expanded beyond the original trilogy, and “Iron Gold,” “Dark Age” and “Light Bringer” give the studio a ready-made multi-film franchise if the first movie lands.
Red Rising Book Cover (Credits: Variety)
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
