Last year we heard that filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, who already made the jump from the steaming hot romance of “Call Me By Your Name” to the beautifully haunting tale of witches in “Suspiria,” was in talks to make the jump to another adaptation of a popular story: “Lord of the Flies.” Now we have news that the project is moving forward and has found a writer in author Patrick Ness.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that Ness, whose novel “A Monster Calls” was made into a feature film a couple of years ago and is still waiting to see the adaptation of his YA novel “Chaos Walking” to reach theaters after multiple delays, is on board to script Guadagnino’s adaptation. Last we heard of the project, it was reported that Warner Bros. was interested in making the film about an all-girls school stranded on an island, but THR notes that the studio “has changed course and is aiming to hew closer to the original novel with this feature project.”
The influential 1954 novel by William Golding remains a dark allegory of the dark urges hidden beneath society’s skin, and follows a group of boys stranded on a deserted jungle island as they split into groups and try to develop small communities — one way more violent than the other.
READ MORE: Long-Delayed ‘Chaos Walking’ Film Finally Gets A January 2021 Release Date
Ness seems like a good choice to write the script, given that both “A Monster Calls” and “Chaos Walking” focus on young adults and children being forced into adult situations and having to face the darkness buried beneath every human. But with everything in Hollywood shut down, expect to wait a few years before we hear more progress on this front.