The last time Melissa Rosenberg was involved with writing scripts based on books aimed at young people, she was part of the team that brought the world Twilight. So you can sort of understand why studios might be eager to be in business with her. Her next big film project? An adaptation of Pamela Sargent’s 1983 sci-fi tome Earthseed.
Paramount, which actually had the first dibs on Twilight, but couldn’t figure out a way to make it work, has been quick off the mark this time, with executive Adam Goodman bringing the Earthseed material to Rosenberg to write and produce.
The film will follow the book’s plot about Earth dispatching a ship carrying a variety of DNA on the hunt for a new planet to colonise. Also included are a group of lab-spawned teenagers who are giving survival training in Hollow, a simulation of our world. But tensions arise and fighting soon breaks out.
“It really talks about the debate of nature vs. nurture, what is innately human and what can be bred in or out of someone," Rosenberg tells the Risky Business blog. "There’s a Lord of the Flies element to it. It involves a young woman who starts off as someone who is content with playing by the rules and being a “good girl,’ and then has to realize that the rules are malleable and that she has to step forward as a leader. It’s really about coming into one’s own power and embracing one’s own strength and individuality."
Sounds like it could appeal to a wider audience than even Stephenie Meyer’s books, though it’ll still have to survive a voyage through development space.