Did the ending of The Hunger Games series leave a Katniss Everdeen-esque hole in your life? Meet Cassie Sullivan, the star of the upcoming sci-fi novel The 5th Wave . Represented by the seemingly ubiquitous Chloë Grace Moretz, Cassie is the next teen heroine to be put to the test on screen. A survivor of a multi-stage attack by an alien race, the teenager is desperate to rescue her younger brother from an evil training camp for human children. The movie will be released on January 22nd and may become a cultural phenomenon like HG or the Twilight series. The novel it's based on is part of a trilogy, so if audiences like the movie, there could be multiple fifth-wave sequels in the future.
The author of the Fifth Wave novels is Rick Yancey, a former IRS employee turned science fiction/fantasy author. The book was published in May 2013 and quickly found readers. Like other crossover successes, these readers are made up of adult readers. "Who cares what shelf you find it on?" Entertainment Weekly wrote in an "A" review of the book. "Read it." The Fifth Wave became a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into more than 30 languages. The announcement of the second book in the series was heralded by a trailer, a trend that acknowledges that any well-written, post-apocalyptic novel starring one or two plucky teenagers has made it from a successful print to a big-budget screen adaptation. Straightforward process.
The Endless Sea picks up where the first novel and the fifth wave of movies left off, so I won't talk about the plot here. The sequel hit bookstores in September 2014, reigniting interest in Cassie and her compatriots' story of survival. Wave 5 fans are still waiting for the trilogy's conclusion, but at least it has a title. "The Last Star" is scheduled to hit shelves this May.
Sony snatched up the rights to the fifth wave trilogy before the trilogy even came out. Entertainment Weekly reported in May 2013 that the studio was already looking to produce a series of Fifth Wave films, although only one of the novels had been completed at the time. (I'm hesitant to guess that the plan is to release three movies for three books, since the movie versions of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games set the precedent of squeezing several huge box office hits out of one novel.)
Wave 5 , at least according to Moretz, is deeper than other similarly classified series. Speaking to MTV News before filming began, the actress praised the film's quality and its strong adult themes. "That's why I haven't done any of these teen projects until now," she said. "None of them excite me." Watch the rest of the interview below. That includes some legitimate criticism of co-star Liev Schreiber's very cool wife Naomi Watts.
Basically, The Fifth Wave would have to take a big hit at the box office to derail plans for the film series. With Moretz's star power growing and loyal readers ready to mobilize, the odds of this outcome were slim to none.
Image: Columbia Pictures
