"Hard Candy" director David Slade isn't wasting any time now that 20th Century Fox's reboot of "Daredevil" is off his plate. He's evidently Disney's first choice to direct an adaptation of "Matched," a young adult novel and love story set in the future, written by Ally Condie. Of course, since it's a young adult novel and set in the future, like "The Hunger Games," "Matched" is the opening part of a trilogy that contains the second book, "Crossed," and a third as-of-yet untitled final book that is due November 2012. Can you say: franchise!
Michelle and Kieran Mulroney ("Sherlock Holes: A Game of Shadows") penned the screenplay that centers on a future society where people are told what to read, believe, watch and think. Aside from being quite Orwellian, there's a love story to boot (natch). This futuristic society employs algorithms to determine the perfect mate for its citizens when they turn 17. The young heroine of the novel rejects her arranged marriage and chooses her own path at the risk of her own peril. Nicholas Sparks didn't write this?
Here's the Amazon synopsis:
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.
Produced by Adam Shankman ("Hairspray," "Rock of Ages"), Slade is known for his hard-edge films like 'Candy' and "30 Days of Night," but apparently the softer "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" was seen as the film that won Disney over. From Daredevil to YA novel. OK, then. [THR]
