Lionsgate Hires Screenwriter for Chaos Walking Adaptation

Last October Lionsgate acquired the film rights to the "Chaos Walking" trilogy of young adult futuristic thrillers by Patrick Ness. Now we're learning that the studio has brought Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) on board to write the screenplay adaptation of the first book in the series, The Knife of Never Letting Go, published in 2008. (The other two books in the trilogy are The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men, published in 2009 and 2010, respectively.)

The storyline introduces Todd Hewitt, 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?