Studios continue to hunt the great white whale of the young adult franchise. With "Twilight" over, "The Hunger Games" is the only player in town, but 2013 brings two contenders to the fore: "Beautiful Creatures" which we're only watching because of Emmy Rossum and "The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones" whose title we don't understand. "Divergent" with Shailene Woodley will get in front of cameras later this year, and now Disney is eager to get into the ring.
Originally assigned to David Slade last fall, the studio's adaptation of Ally Condie's "Matched" now has "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" helmer Jon Chu to direct. Sounding like your typical YA fare, the story takes place in the future (of course), where society is like, totally uncool, and you're told what to read, what to watch, who to believe and even who to love, with arranged marriages the norm. But one girl rebels against the system man, because of course she does.
All of these YA stories seem to be written off the same template, and we wonder how long it is before movie audiences figure out. Michelle and Kieran Mulroney ("Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows") penned the script, so maybe this will be more explosion-y that the competition, but we're kinda bored by the story already. But then again, we're not thirteen. [THR]