Hail Reaper! The rights to the popular “Red Rising” book series have been picked up at Paramount with “Hunger Games” director Francis Lawrence attached to a movie based on the first novel.
Justin Rhodes will write the script, based on the original 2014 novel by author Pierce Brown. Lawrence and Cameron MacConomy will produce for About.Blank, alongside Francesco Goedhuis. Brown will executive produce.
“Red Rising” takes place in a sci-fi future where planets have been colonized and society has been separated into a color-coded caste system. The impoverished Reds work as slave labor in the mines of Mars, while the super-strong Golds rule the solar system and war on each other. The books follow Darrow of Lykos, a miner who suffers a great loss and is thrust into a rebellion’s revenge plot against the Golds. He undergoes a brutal transformation to become a Gold himself and enrolls at a military school alongside other young adults who are tested before joining the highest Gold ranks. There are currently six books in the series, including “Golden Son,” “Morning Star,” “Iron Gold,” “Dark Age” and “Lightbringer,” with a seventh and final novel, “Red God,” on the way.
Lawrence is no stranger to adapting popular young adult novels. He’s directed every “Hunger Games” movie, including next month’s prequel “Sunrise on the Reaping” and 2023’s “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” He also directed last year’s Stephen King adaptation “The Long Walk.”
Lawrence is repped by CAA, Gretchen Rush at Hansen Jacobson and ID. Brown is repped by CAA, Hannah Bowman at Liza Dawson Associates for publishin and Dave Feldman at Brecheen Feldman Breimer Silver & Thompson. Rhodes is repped by CAA, Adam Kolbrenner at Lit Entertainment and Eric Suddleson at Toczek Suddleson.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.