Brad Peyton To Write, Direct ‘Monument 14′ For Reel FX And Strange Weather
EXCLUSIVE: Reel FX and Andrew Adamson’s Strange Weather have acquired screen rights to Monument 14, the first installment of a young adult novel trilogy by Emmy Laybourne that Brad Peyton will adapt to direct. Reel FX, which has a partnership with Strange Weather, will produce alongside Adamson and Aron Warner, with Jeff Fierson exec producing and overseeing.
The first novel is an unlikely jumping off point for a post-apocalyptic young adult trilogy. It’s best described as The Breakfast Club set after the apocalypse. A group of teens are trapped together in a chain superstore and face the prospect of life, death and love and hate while the world as they know it ends right outside. That book was published in June, and the followup, Monument 14: Sky On Fire, will be published next June by the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group imprint Feiwell & Friends.
“As soon as I read the first chapter, I knew I wanted to do this movie,” said Peyton, who last helmed Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. “It’s such a great concept and the kids felt real to me. The whole experience of living through the end of the world is an exciting one to try to capture on film, especially from such an original perspective.”
Strange Weather’s Warner said that Peyton is a strong match for the material. “He instinctively knows how to balance the intimate and the epic elements that make this project so unique.” They also have developed a rapport, as Peyton is also working on another big scale project, Invasion, with Strange Weather and Reel FX.
Reel FX, which created animated content for 20 before launching a development and production slate in 2010, finances development, and then takes packages and places them with studios. They’ll follow the same formula with Monument 14. With Strange Weather, they most recently completed the Adamson-directed Cirque du Soleil: World’s Away, which Adamson and Warner produced with James Cameron. Verve reps Peyton.
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