Looks like Paramount’s found yet another property to put on film, with the latest pick being Pierce Brown’s Red Rising novel.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Hunger Games alum Francis Lawrence will helm a live-action adaptation. Scripting duties go to Justin Rhodes, who’s already working with Lawrence on the BioShock adaptation for Netflix. (It’ll happen someday, honest!) The film marks the latest book adaptation under Lawrence’s belt—along with the recent Hunger Games movies, he also directed last year’s Long Walk—and the newest sci-fi outing for Rhodes. His previous credits include Terminator: Dark Fate, plus Robocop Returns and the Unreal Tournament and Warhammer 40K episodes of Prime Video’s Secret Level.
Red Rising released in 2014 and takes place on a dystopian Mars. Low-status laborers mine the planet for helium-3 fuel so humanity can terraform it into a livable world. Eighteen-year-old Darrow is one such miner, and after being publicly whipped, he goes on a revenge quest against the planet’s ruler, Nero Augustus. To do that, he’ll throw in with the local rebels to infiltrate the high society as a Gold-status member—color determines one’s status in society, and by extension their role and physical traits.
After the first novel was well-received by critics and audiences, Brown expanded Rising into a series spanning a trilogy and separate tetraology. This also isn’t the first time Hollywood’s been interested in the book; Universal picked up the rights in 2014, but nothing came of it. Brown tried doing a TV show in 2018 and 2021, but neither of those gained any traction, either.
We’ll see if this time’s the charm should more Red Rising news emerge in the coming months and years.
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Earlier this month, Paramount announced its plan to adapt CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 into a movie. Given the game’s already a franchise with a returning anime spinoff, some wondered what exactly that meant. Would we be getting a hard canon version of the original game in two-hour format, or something more like Edgerunners that widens the universe?
It seems the latter’s in the cards, at least according to CDPR’s co-CEO Michał Nowakowski. While talking to Polish outlet PAP Biznes, he specifically stated the plan was to “definitely…not make a film adaptation of the game. We want to tell a story in the world of Cyberpunk, but it won’t be a one-to-one game story.”
That’s good to hear, and not just because it avoids any canon arguments that arise when tackling RPGs for film and TV. Even when Cyberpunk 2077 was broken, players really took to its setting, which likely helped explain why Edgerunners was such a success. In fact, Nowakowski specifically cited this in relation to next week’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners II. Trigger’s first anime renewed interest in the game, leading to increased sales for months and years on end, something the studio hopes continues with this new series.
“These types of events have two effects—we activate existing players and attract new audiences,” he said. “We hope that this time we will also be able to invite anime viewers to our game.” CDPR’s strategy isn’t dissimilar from how other games have been moving when adapted, and The Witcher has been equally lucky. All this means is that whenever the Cyberpunk 2077 movie rolls around, it won’t have to work too hard to drum up interest. Between the Edgerunners series and the game’s famous rehabilitation, folks will have reason to pay attention to it.
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Thanks to its Encore re-release, Avengers: Endgame is once again the biggest movie ever at $2.955 billion. And you know it’s happened because James—sorry, Jim Cameron went and celebrated the film for beating his own, 2009’s Avatar.
We’ve seen this kind of celebratory art before amongst the biggest movies ever, including more recently with Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Along with continuing that trend, this brings the back-and-forth between Endgame and Avatar full circle after they previously went head-to-head in 2019 and 2021. Comments on his various channels have drawn lines between the two films, but Cameron’s just glad people are seeing movies in theaters again, and that Encore helped further that agenda. That’s sweet.
— James Cameron (@JimCameron) October 16, 2026
As for the art itself…it’s something, huh? If you ever wanted to see Iron Man embraced by the Na’vi, Cameron has granted your wish. (Given Avatar’s optics and similar scenes in other media, the framing and “You are one of the people” underneath is a choice.) Out of curiosity, we reached out to Disney about who drew or created the art above—previous congrats have seen directors and studios commission artists who autographed their work, though it’s not always been the case with the recent shifits (or the general tug-of-war between Avengers: Endgame and Cameron’s movies).
With this battle now put to bed, the only question is how long it’ll last. After all, Avatar will be 20 years old in a few years, likely prompting its third time returning to the big screen. Before that, it’s anyone’s game; maybe Brand New Day keeps getting popular after its own re-release, or Avengers: Doomsday could shock everyone and pull big dethroning numbers. Either way, the Encore will come to an end eventually.
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Plus get a tiny glimpse of ‘Supergirl’ ahead of its first trailer this week.
Let us all give our money to Letterboxd.
The director reacted to what audiences liked and didn’t like about his movie for its follow-up, out December 19.