The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence explains how Paramount swiped a new dystopian sci-fi epic adaptation from Netflix after eight years in development.
Dystopian sci-fi is enjoying a serious renaissance, with hit television series such as Silo, Fallout, and Severance demonstrating the genre’s potential for fresh exploration. Paramount struck gold in October by securing the rights to a long-awaited literary property with an ambitious scale far greater than that explored in The Hunger Games or even the Star Wars saga.
It’s also a big ask in terms of spend, because it’s not going to be cheap. And so that went away, and then we just made the move to Paramount. And I’m very excited because I feel like that material is deserving of a theatrical experience.
It’s also a big ask in terms of spend, because it’s not going to be cheap. And so that went away, and then we just made the move to Paramount. And I’m very excited because I feel like that material is deserving of a theatrical experience.
Netflix underwent a major leadership shake-up in October 2026, when Bela Bajaria was ousted as Chief Content Officer after nearly a decade at the company. Former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice was appointed to replace him, taking over scripted and unscripted series, films, and live content. Film head Dan Lin was also abruptly removed from his position shortly after Bajaria’s exit.
It’s an infiltration story, which brings its own sort of set of thematics and moral quandaries. I love that about it.
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It’s an infiltration story, which brings its own sort of set of thematics and moral quandaries. I love that about it.
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Francis Lawrence has become a go-to filmmaker for dystopian sci-fi, having directed four Hunger Games movies, with the upcoming prequel Sunrise on the Reaping next on his slate. Now, he is taking on another ambitious project: a feature-film adaptation of Pierce Brown’s bestselling Red Rising, the first entry in an expansive saga.
Fusing Roman mythology and history with futuristic sci-fi, Red Rising unfolds on Mars, where society is divided into a rigid color-coded caste system. Its protagonist, Darrow, is a lowborn miner who discovers the devastating truth about his place in the world and sets out to infiltrate the ruling elite.
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What begins as a quest to avenge his executed lover soon escalates into a full-scale revolution, forcing Darrow to confront the possibility that dismantling a monstrous regime could turn him into a monster himself. Lawrence suggests that Darrow’s journey could carry the same emotional intensity and raw impact as Haymitch’s in Sunrise on the Reaping, despite taking a very different path.
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Both characters are underdogs forced to outmaneuver a game controlled by the elite, but their arcs move in opposite directions: Darrow rises to power as Haymitch’s story takes a heartbreaking downward turn. Darrow’s larger journey is far more layered than those of Haymitch, Katniss Everdeen, or even Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, as his rise as a revolutionary leader is constantly complicated by his own inner turmoil.
Unlike these heroes, Darrow operates in morally ambiguous territory, leading a rebellion while wrestling with the consequences of his choices, similar to Paul Atreides in Dune. Luke, by comparison, follows a much more conventional black-and-white hero’s journey.
Pierce Brown’s Red Rising saga currently spans six published books, with a seventh installment still in the works. The sprawling narrative offers plenty of material for a long-running film franchise, and Lawrence’s success steering multiple Hunger Games movies suggests that he is well-equipped to bring the ambitious Red Rising series to the big screen.
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