The latest young-adult science fiction series to get a film adaptation is Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy. And it only took 10 years for it to happen.
Whispers of the Chaos Walking movie started in 2011, with more concrete attachments coming in 2016. Filming commenced in 2017, though major reshoots were scheduled in 2018 following poor test screenings. But because the two stars — Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley — were both in billion-dollar franchises at that point, the reshoots got pushed to 2019. Now, at long last, the movie has surfaced, and we have a glimpse of the dystopian world.
The first installment in the trilogy is set on a colony world in the near future, where everyone believes that a killer germ has wiped out all women and unleashed the Noise — an ability to read humans and animals’ minds — onto the remaining men. Holland’s character, Todd Hewitt, manages to find a relief from the Noise, in the form of a mysterious young woman, Viola Eade (Ridley).
The cast includes Mads Mikkelsen as a cruel mayor and Todd’s mentor, while Nick Jonas plays the mayor’s jealous son. Manchee, Todd’s loyal dog, will also be featured.
The synopsis is below:
In a colony world in the near future, Todd Hewitt has been brought up to believe that a viral germ has killed all the women and unleashed Noise, the special ability to read people’s and animal’s minds. Later, he comes upon a patch of silence and soon discovers the source of the silence: a girl named Viola Eade.
Chaos Walking is based on the first book in the trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go, and is set to be released on Jan. 22, 2021.
