Though the latest round of Young Adult adaptations have mostly been misses ('Beautiful Creatures,' 'The Host,' 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'), the success of the 'Twilight' and 'Harry Potter' adaptations means that Hollywood will keep returning to that well. Now the genre could produce its biggest (or at least most prestigious) title yet: Oscar winner Robert Zemeckis is in talks to helm the first book in the 'Chaos Walking' series from a script written by Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman.

This news comes from The Wrap, and Zemeckis is an old hand at this point, having directed such hits as the 'Back to the Future' trilogy, 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' and 'Forrest Gump.' The only reason why he's not still directing A-list titles is because of his detour into advancing motion capture technology with such films as 'The Polar Express' and 'Beowulf,'  which lost him some capital. But he recovered nicely with last year's 'Flight,' which was done on a budget and was a hit.

This would be an adaptation of 'The Knife of Never Letting Go,' which is the first book in the 'Chaos Walking' trilogy, and it's about a boy who lives in a town of all men and who can hear everyone's thoughts. He can tell they're hiding something from him, so he runs away only to meet the only woman who survived the plague that killed all other females. This could be a boiler-plate end of the world romance, but with Zemeckis and Kaufman attached -- if nothing else -- it promises to be one of the more fascinating films in this genre.

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