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Filmmaker Francis Lawrence has made a career out of adapting dystopian fiction into film, but his next project, Red Rising, presents a whole new challenge that could push his limits creatively. While the director’s latest film, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, is rated PG-13, warning about strong violence and bloody images, his adaptation of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising is likely to give Sunrise on the Reaping some major competition. Brown’s novel series, which is likely to wrap up in 2028 with the release of Red God, is notably violent and doesn’t shy away from its brutality.
While Lawrence has plenty of experience working with adapting dystopian novels into films after working on The Hunger Games franchise for over a decade, simply looping Red Rising in with the rest of the filmmaker’s work would overlook what makes the new project interesting. For over a decade, Red Rising has been in development hell, struggling to reach the screen with multiple projects based on the novels attempting to surface. With a film and a TV attempt at making Red Rising into something that jumps off the page failing to pan out, Lawrence’s adaptation needs to take an entirely different approach.
Brown himself, who worked on the TV adaptation of Red Rising for quite some time before the project was scrapped, has made it clear that waiting for the right collaborators in building something to vast from his work was of the utmost importance. With an admiration for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings franchise serving as a guide, Brown seems to have finally been set up with the right players to make Red Rising’s adaptation work.
Red Rising Presents A Different Challenge Than The Hunger Games Franchise
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Del Rey</figure>
While Lawrence has spent well over a decade developing and creating the world of Panem within The Hunger Games franchise, Red Rising presents a specific new challenge for the filmmaker. Though the worlds of The Hunger Games and Red Rising are similar, presenting the audience with the story of a protagonist in an oppressive society where social hierarchy is a matter of life or death, Brown’s novel takes the power struggle between its main character and the power structure to an entirely different level. With Darrow joining the rebellion and infiltrating Gold society, his survival in the Institute is far more violent than The Hunger Games ever gets.
Red Rising doesn’t shy away from the brutal environment of the Institute, and with there being some intense violence depicted throughout, adapting that for the screen is going to take a specific, unique vision. While Lawrence has had to deal with some intense moments throughout The Hunger Games franchise, there are moments throughout Red Rising that may prove to be challenging. Darrow’s experience with the Passage, for example, is crucial for the narrative of the story, but may prove to be tough to navigate on screen because of its violent nature.
Pierce Brown’s Lord Of The Rings Comparison Explains Why This Adaptation Is Different
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Image: New Line Cinema</figure>
While softening Red Rising in any way doesn’t feel like the right call for the film, finding a way to move through the more violent parts of the novel without losing the audience will be difficult. Thankfully, Brown and Lawrence have already been developing their relationship, and have made it clear that they want to utilize a different approach to the adaptation than what Lawrence has done with The Hunger Games in the past. Lawrence, who has been attached to Red Rising in some capacity for the better part of a decade, has advocated for a larger-scale theatrical release for the adaptation.
Having built a personal connection to the project over the years, Lawrence is the right fit for Red Rising in Brown’s eyes, especially after spending so much time advocating for the right adaptation of the series. Brown explained that in the same way Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings came from a genuine love for the story and hope to do it justice, Lawrence has that level of connection to Red Rising. With the right filmmaker approaching the project from a place of genuine interest in how it will best work on screen, Brown seems more hopeful about Red Rising’s adaptation than ever.
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