Or maybe it’s just the “Hollywood’s finally getting its head out of its ass” effect.
News arrived yesterday that three separate sci-fi tales with female protagonists are currently in development: the post-apocalyptic The 5th Wave, the ultra-dystopian A Girl Called Fearless, and a planned trilogy currently titled The Eden Project.
Chloe Grace Moretz will play hardened teen Cassie Sullivan in the The 5th Wave, an adaptation of the YA novel by Rick Yancey. After an alien invasion, Cassie’s world has been plunged back into the Stone Age. As one of earth’s few remaining survivors, it’s her mission to stay a survivor. It is scheduled to begin shooting in October.
A Girl Called Fearless details a setting that’s somehow even bleaker: one where the accidental mass poisoning of teenage girls leads to society-wide forced marriages by an organization called Paternal Controls. (Shudder.) Taking place in our era, Catherine Linka’s novel finds a girl named Avie Reveare fleeing her arranged wedding to a millionaire — and learning horrific secrets about the government as a fugitive. Universal Cable Productions has optioned A Girl Called Fearless, along with its upcoming sequel A Girl Undone, and plans to adapt them into a TV series.
There’s comparatively little information about The Eden Project, a potential trilogy of sci-fi films from two-time Black List screenwriter Christine Hodson. Columbia Pictures president Hannah Minghella will reportedly oversee the action franchise about two female characters.
While The Hunger Games and Divergent seem to have done little to counteract Hollywood’s ridiculous ageism, it’s great news that the industry actually learned the right lesson off a female success story for once. A new wave of girl power at the multiplex can’t come soon enough.
