Francis Lawrence to direct Paramount's Red Rising film adaptation

Mixed · 2Paramount has acquired the film rights to Pierce Brown's best-selling sci-fi series Red Rising, with Francis Lawrence attached to direct an adaptation of the first novel. 1 2 Left · 1Variety describes the project as based on Brown's 2014 novel, and says Lawrence has directed every Hunger Games film, including the prequel Sunrise on the Reaping next month and 2023's The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. 3 Mixed · 2Justin Rhodes will write the script; The Hollywood Reporter notes he worked with Lawrence developing Netflix's Bioshock adaptation, while Deadline lists his credits as Terminator: Dark Fate and the Prime Video series Secret Level. 1 2

Mixed · 2Lawrence and Cameron MacConomy will produce for their about.blank banner alongside Francesco Goedhuis, and Brown will executive produce. 2 1 Mixed · 2The story is set on Mars, where society is divided into a colour-coded class system topped by the Golds; Darrow, a Red miner, learns his people have been enslaved, infiltrates Gold society and aims to bring it down. 1 2 Left · 1Six books have been published with a seventh on the way, and in 2024 Brown said on Instagram the series had sold over 6 million copies, though The Hollywood Reporter says it is unclear whether that figure is US or global. The property was once set up for feature development at Universal and was eyed as a series in the late 2010s. 1

Centre · 1Collider also says the series has sold over six million copies, and that a 2010s Universal feature adaptation fell through before reaching production. 4 Mixed · 2Both outlets place the project among other literary adaptations at Paramount: Children of Blood and Bone (due January 15, 2027), Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Deadline gives a November 12, 2027 release) and The Midnight Library. 2 1 Mixed · 2Lawrence, who directed The Long Walk, also has The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping coming from Lionsgate; the outlets give November 20, 2027 and November 20 respectively as its release. 1 2

Mixed · 2Collider says Sunrise on the Reaping stars Joseph Zada and Ralph Fiennes and that Lawrence is also attached to Constantine 2 with Keanu Reeves; The Hollywood Reporter's 2027 date for Sunrise on the Reaping conflicts with the November 20 release given by Deadline, Collider and Variety ("next month"). 4 1 Centre · 1Deadline adds that Lawrence recently signed a deal with Lionsgate for Carry Me to My Grave, a Christopher Golden horror novel adaptation he is eyeing to direct and produce, and credits The Hollywood Reporter with breaking the Red Rising news. 2 Centre · 1Screen Rant, citing The Hollywood Reporter, ran a brief item marked as developing, and spells the writer's name "Rhoades". 5