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Daisy Ridley‘s role as Rey in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ proved to be a huge hit with younger girls, so it’s not much of a stretch to discover she will be staying in a familiar role as Viola Eade in the adaptation of Patrick Ness’ ‘Chaos Walking’.  The films will be produced by Lionsgate, who has struggled in recent years with their YA adaptations, with the waning popularity of ‘The Hunger Games’ films and the recent decision to make the last ‘Divergent Series’ movie straight-to-television.  But perhaps ‘Chaos Walking’ will succeed where those failed.

200px-The_Knife_of_Never_Letting_Go_by_Patrick_NessNess’ books are set in a world where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts in a cacophony called The Noise.  Thus far, Ridley is the only actor cast, although her character isn’t the lead in the first book, ‘The Knife of Never letting Go’.  The main character in that book is a boy named Todd Hewitt, but with the second book, ‘The Ask And The Answer’, Viola becomes one of the narrators.  The third book is entitled ‘Monsters of Men’ and Ness has also penned three additional short stories as part of the story, which may also add material to the movies.

Doug Liman (‘The Bourne Identity’, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’) is attached to direct.  Charlie Kaufman (‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’) and Jamie Linden (‘Dear John’) penned the script.  Allison Shearmer and Doug Davison are attached to produce.

Ridley will next be seen in ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ next winter, although she has additional projects in pre-production including ‘Ophelia’ co-starring Naomi Watts and the fantasy drama ‘Kolma’.

Ridley’s ‘The Force Awakens’ costar John Boyega recently signed on to star in ‘Pacific Rim: Maelstrom’ a follow-up to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 sci-fi flick.

One thing that may be certain is, if ‘The Knife Of Never Letting Go’ is a hit, Lionsgate will most likely stick with making a trilogy of movies, since the practice of splitting the final books into two movies didn’t pan out so well for ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Divergent’.

Are you a fan of Ness’ novels?  Are you excited that Lionsgate is making them into movies?  And what do you think of Ridley’s casting?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter