Warner Bros. wins bidding war for “The Young World” YA novel

PanARMENIAN.Net - After a heated auction Friday, Warner Bros. won a bidding war to secure the rights to The Young World, the first in an original trilogy of post-apocalyptic YA novels by filmmaker turned novelist Chris Weitz, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Weitz will adapt the books and also will direct and produce from his original novel, which will be published in 2013 by Little Brown. Depth of Field will produce, along with Andrew Miano.

The books center on teenage survivors who inherit a destroyed and desolate earth, after a cataclysmic event kills off every person on earth not between the ages of 12 and 21. Ill-equipped to restore society to working order, the surviving residents of New York City must try to rebuild their world from the ground up.

Weitz directed the film adaptation of the novel The Golden Compass, a major international hit, and the film adaptation of New Moon from the series of Twilight books (the film grossed more than $700 million worldwide). Weitz most recently directed 2011's A Better Life, for which Demian Bichir was nominated for a best actor Oscar.

Chantal Nong brought the project into the studio and will oversee with Lynn Harris.