Francis Lawrence says Red Rising spent years stuck at Netflix because the streamer never committed, and that Paramount is treating the film version as a priority. In an interview with IGN, the Hunger Games director explained how Pierce Brown’s sci-fi saga ended up on the big screen instead of a streaming service. It adds colour to the news we covered when Paramount landed the project.
From Netflix series to Paramount film
Lawrence told IGN he’s been attached to Red Rising for about eight years. His producing partner Cameron MacConomy found the books and brought them to him, and the pair took the project to market with Brown before landing at Netflix, where the plan was a series. They had two pilots written, Lawrence said, but leadership kept changing and the company kept reshuffling the project between “tentpole” and YA departments.
That churn, he argued, is why nothing got made. He said the show wasn’t cheap to produce properly, and that “They never got the guts to pull the trigger on it.” The rights then reverted to Brown, who took the books to Paramount, a move Lawrence welcomed because he prefers a theatrical approach to streaming. In his view, the series deserves a big-screen release, IMAX included.
Netflix hasn’t commented in the interview as published, so the account of what went wrong there is Lawrence’s alone.
Where the script stands
Lawrence said the team has a writer it likes, who is now starting work on a script, and that he hopes to assemble the film “quite quickly”. He described the project as seeming to be a priority at Paramount. Deadline reported on 16 October that Justin Rhodes, whose credits include Terminator: Dark Fate and Prime Video’s Secret Level, will write the script, with Lawrence and MacConomy producing for their about:blank banner alongside Francesco Goedhuis, and Brown executive producing.
No cast or release date has been announced. Lawrence’s schedule is also busy: IGN notes he recently directed The Long Walk and is about to follow it with The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, due in November. The same interview touched on the long-delayed BioShock film, which IGN says it covers separately.
Is the Red Rising movie still a Netflix project?
No. Lawrence says Netflix first developed it as a series, but the rights reverted to author Pierce Brown, who took it to Paramount. It’s now being developed there as a feature film.
When will the Red Rising movie be released?
There’s no release date yet. Lawrence says a writer is starting the script and he hopes the project comes together quickly, but no cast has been announced.
Will the film cover the whole Red Rising series?
Not yet known. Reports say Lawrence is attached to an adaptation of the first novel, also titled Red Rising, and Paramount hasn’t announced plans beyond that.
