The bell at the boxing ring for young adult film adaptations has just rung as another contenderslips off its robe and clambers between the ropes. This latest potential fighter is a version of Lauren Kate’s book Fallen, which now boasts War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine and Californication veteran Addison Timlin in the lead roles.
Shine director Scott Hicks is aboard to direct the film, which once more blends romance with supernatural creatures. In this case, we meet heroine Luce (Timlin), a shy teenager suspected of killing a boy. Banished for her alleged crime to the Sword and Cross reform school, she discovers that the place is a nexus for weird occurrences, which might just be because most of the students are fallen angels. And they’re split into good and evil factions…
Luce gets involved with two in particular (yup, yet another love triangle) and the stage is set for conflicted feelings and deadly consequences. Because, let’s face it, angels just studying for their final exams really isn’t all that exciting, is it?
Hicks is working from a script by Michael Ross that builds on earlier work from Kathryn Price and Nicole Millard. Should it work out, Kate has three follow-ups, Torment, Passion and Rapture waiting in the wings to become sequels.