Brad Pitt helping to bring YA sci-fi Illuminae to the big screen

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Everyone keeps looking to mine the YA section at their nearby bookstore in hopes of finding what could be the next big thing for Hollywood, and Brad Pitt and his Plan B shingle may have secured an interesting property to try adapting.

Teaming up with Warner Bros., the rights have been secured for the New York Times best-seller ILLUMINAE. Written by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the novel has received a lot of acclaim for its unique approach to storytelling, calling upon everything from found documents to texts and instant messages to ship schematics and casualty lists in order to inform the reader.

What’s ILLUMINAE about?

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
 

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

This is built as a trilogy, so there’s that attractive aspect for everyone to capitalize on in this era of trilogies. But this is where the hard work will come in, as it’ll be up to finding the right writers and director to turn this source material into a feature film. Will it maintain its different approach, which is what is so beloved about it? You look at WORLD WAR Z, and that’d tell you no, that we might be headed for something more conventional… but we won’t know for sure until someone gets cracking on the page-to-screen transition.