With shooting wrapped on Star Wars: Episode VIII, Daisy Ridley is turning her attention to other potential franchises. The actress has signed on to star in Lionsgate’s adaptation of Patrick Ness’ post-apocalyptic YA series Chaos Walking, set in a world where all living beings can hear each other’s thoughts through Noise, a stream of words and images and sounds.
The first line of the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, explains the series title: “The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.” The first book of the trilogy follows Todd Hewitt, the sole boy in a town of men. But when Todd discovers a patch of silence, it leads him to a girl, Viola. That has to be Ridley’s role. Here’s the book synopsis:
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him—something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) will direct the film, which right now looks to be called Chaos Walking. Charlie Kaufman had originally adapted the book—which, considering Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, sounds incredibly promising—but recent updates also point to Jamie Linden (Dear John, Money Monster) taking a stab at it. That’s all we know so far, but if the adaptation is anything like Ness’ series, it will be sure to rip your heart out by the series’ end.
