There was a time when a big film announcing that the cast and crew were reconvening for reshoots set off all sorts of alarms. The news still causes ripples today, but we know that many bigger movies build in time and budget for additional work. But there are some wrinkles with Chaos Walking, chief among them that original novelist Patrick Ness is now in talks to write fresh script pages for the film's new work.
Chaos Walking, which has Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley starring and Doug Liman directing, is based on Ness' first book in the series, The Knife Of Never Letting Go. The story finds humankind in a dystopian future, colonising a distant planet after the Earth has been ruined. When an infection called the Noise strikes, all thoughts become audible, and chaos follows.
A corrupt autocrat takes the chance to seize control of the human settlements in order to launch a strike on native alien race the Spackles, blaming them for the infection that's apparently killing human women. Young Todd Hewitt (Holland), the only boy in a town solely composed of men, rebels to stop the oncoming destruction. Going on the run with his dog, he teams up with a mysterious girl, Viola (Ridley), who is the source of a precious patch of silence.
The script for this one has so far seen drafts from Charlie Kaufman, Gary Spinelli and Lindsey Beer, among others, and Liman is looking at two to three weeks' worth of new shooting time, following the main block that finished last November. It's a little more complicated, however, by his stars' schedules: Holland has a Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel pencilled in and Ridley will be a little bit busy in that galaxy far, far away. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the release date, planned for March 2019 might have to be pushed back if the leads can't shoot before the end of this year or early next. Ness previously adapted his A Monster Calls for the screen, so he does have experience shepherding his work to cinemas.
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