Tom Holland in talks to join Daisy Ridley in Doug Liman’s Chaos Walking

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

The Young Adult franchises of the cinematic world aren't quite as huge as they once were, but that's not stopping studios from continuing to search for the next big thing. Lionsgate is hoping to follow up the success of THE HUNGER GAMES with an adaptation of Patrick Ness' "Chaos Walking" series, the first of which is set to be directed by Doug Liman (EDGE OF TOMORROW). The series consists of "The Knife of Never Letting Go", "The Ask and the Answer", "Monsters of Men" and takes place in a dystopian world where all women have been killed by a germ and all of the remaining living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds called Noise.

Daisy Ridley (STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS) is already on-board to star in the film and now THR reports that Tom Holland (SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING) is currently in negotiations to join the post-apocalyptic thriller as well. Should the deal go through, Holland would star as a boy forced to flee his town with his loyal dog as his only companion. While out in the wilderness, the pair stumble across a mysterious sight, a girl (Daisy Ridley). Jamie Linden (MONEY MONSTER) penned the most recent draft of CHAOS WALKING, although Charlie Kaufman (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND) was originally brought in to adapt the property. It's not clear how much of his work has survived, but it's interesting that the project managed to attract him to begin with.

A synopsis of "The Knife of Never Letting Go" via Amazon:

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING will hit theaters on July 7, 2017 and will be followed by STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII on December 15, 2017.