Lionsgate nabs 'Chaos' feature rights

Lionsgate has bought feature rights to the ''Chaos Walking'' young adult novel trilogy by Patrick Ness.The announcement was made Monday by Lionsgate's co-COO and Motion Picture Group President Joe Drake.Studio has set ''Chaos'' with Doug Davison who will produce through his Quadrant Pictures.Stories are set in a dystopian future with humans colonizing a distant earth-like planet. When an infection called the Noise suddenly makes all thought audible, privacy vanishes in an instant and in the ensuing chaos, a corrupt autocrat threatens to take control of the human settlements and wage war with the indigenous alien race."A sense of urgency and momentum permeates these stories -- it makes the books ones you can't put down, and will make the movies ones you can't miss on the big screen," said Drake of his decision to acquire the adaptation rights. "But apart from the story elements, the world in the stories is so vividly imagined. These are books, much like 'The Hunger Games,' that we feel truly beg to be brought to life on film."The rights deal was negotiated for the studio by Rob McEntegart, the Motion Picture Group's Senior Executive Vice President, and for the author by his agent Michelle Kass of Michelle Kass Associates in London and attorney Howard Abramson of Behr Abramson in LA. Robert Melnik, Executive Vice President of Business Affairs for Lionsgate, negotiated Davison's producer deal with attorney Rick Genow. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

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