Currently the subject of his latest round of Oscar buzz thanks to The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio is putting on his producer's hat to usher a new novel adaptation into Paramount's development cycle. He's backing a film based on Kayla Olson's forthcoming YA title The Sandcastle Empire.
Because it's a YA tome set in the future, Olson's story fits into a seemingly predictable mould – the world is in the grip of a dystopian nightmare, as climate ramifications have led to a near collapse of society in 2049. A radical faction called the Wolfpack overthrows the government and takes control. Which is where the book's heroine, a young woman named Eden, fits in. She escapes one of the new regime's work camps and takes flight with three other girls to an island that promises safety. On her journey, she learns what might have happened to her missing father and how she's the key to bringing down the Wolfpack.
So... yes, if you were keeping score with your YA bingo card, that's pretty much all the main tropes hit there, but DiCaprio, who was alerted to the book by Nathaniel Posey from the actor's Appian Way production company, clearly thinks there's something to it that can compete with the likes of The Hunger Games, Divergent and the rest. The environmental themes were a big selling point given his Earth conscious activism.
Now it'll be up to DiCaprio and the studio to sort out writers, directors and potential casting, and we'd be shocked – shocked, we tell you – if Olson wasn't planning more books in the series with a potential film franchise in the offing if the first one A) makes it to screens and B) is a hit.