Dystopian Teen Sci-Fi Novel 'The Loners' Headed to the Big Screen
With The Hunger Games currently ravaging the US box office, it comes as no surprise that the rest of Hollywood wants to capitalize on Lionsgate's success. When there's one box office hit, ten more just like it spring into development, but rarely do these second wave efforts make as big an impact as the original. (See Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant for how not to replicate Twilight's domination.) Now, a company called Black Forest has their sights on teen sci-fi as Variety reports they've bought the upcoming novel Quarantine: The Loners, a high school survival story set after a worldwide disease kills adults. Read on!
Quarantine: The Loners (I've also seen it referred to as the more pun-heavy title Quaranteen) follows two brothers quarantined in a high school after a worldwide outbreak kills anyone who has developed past puberty. Described as The Warriors meets Lord of the Flies, the thousand kids trapped in the same school form gangs based on their previously established cliques and fight each other to survive, while the brothers' bond is tested when a girl comes between them. The book was written by Lex Thomas, a pseudonym for Lex Habre and Thomas Voorhies, and that duo will also write the screenplay. Like every other book written with a film adaptation in mind, The Loners is the first of a planned trilogy, so we can expect to see more high school age kids brawling to the death for years to come.
I loved The Hunger Games, but I feel like a huge part of the film's success is based on the books, which feature a female protagonist that, in turn, generated a massive female audience who got very excited and were anticipating the film version. This doesn't feel like it will have that same ability to catch fire (pun intended) with the ladies out there, so don't expect this one to perform nearly as well at the box office, or even on bookshelves. That's not to say that it can't be a great movie, because I definitely think it has potential, but will it be a box office juggernaut? Not likely.
Find more posts: Development, Movie News