Charlie Kaufman to Adapt Chaos Walking YA Series into Feature Film

Posted on April 24, 2012

Deadline reports that Oscar winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Being John Malkovich) will adapt the first book in the Chaos Walking series into a new feature film. The bestselling young adult series is authored by Patrick Ness.

The first book in the series, The Knife of Never Letting Go, won a number of prestigious book awards. The book is set in the future on a distant planet colonized by humans. A war with the indigenous aliens leaves nearly all the human women dead and the men and animal infected with the Noise -- an infection that has caused all thoughts to be audible. It nearly drives everyone crazy. Young Todd Hewitt finds out some secrets about the Noise and ends up having to go on the run with his talking dog.

The series has quite a bit of violence and it's unlikely that it would have been considered for a movie adaptation if The Hunger Games hadn't paved the way for some more interesting, darker YA books being made into movies. Author Patrick Ness is thrilled that Kaufman was hired. He posted on his blog, "Yeah, I know. Seriously. I don't even know what to say next. Charlie Kaufman! I just can't tell you how excited I am about this news..."

We're also pretty excited and can't wait to see what Kaufman does with the material.