James Patterson is perhaps the most prolific author in the world, churning out – last time we checked – about 289 novels a year, including several self-created franchises, from the wildly successful Alex Cross novels to the Womens Murder Club series and the Maximum Ride brand, which is, y’know, for kids.
And it’s the latter that we’re focusing on today, for it’s about to become a movie, y’know, for kids. For Columbia Pictures has snapped up the rights to the series, and asked Don Payne – brother of Max, and second cousin of Window, we’re hoping – to write the script for what they’re hoping will be the first in a franchise.
In case you’re not au fait with Maximum Ride, it’s about a group of six kids who are 98% human and 2% bird. No, really. Thankfully, the 2% enables them to fly, and not, say, to crap on people from a great height or hang around in parks eating bread and bits of old Mars bars.
Using their powers, these government-bred kids escape and go on the run (shouldn’t that be fly?). Naturally, being evil, the government sends a group of wolf-humans, called Erasers, to hunt them down.
Sounds very much like a superhero movie, right? And the presence of ex-Marvel Films head honcho, Avi Arad, as producer further reinforces that. Avi, who’s really stepping up his post-Marvel career with projects like this, Lost Planet and Ghost In The Shell, sees Maximum Ride as a brand new superhero series in the making.
He’ll produce along with his son, Ari, and Steven Paul, while Patterson will executive produce.
Well, readers, does this idea have wings, or will it crash to earth? Will we stop with the dreadful bird jokes? What do you think?