Half-bird teens vs. wolf men in worst idea ever?

I don’t like to judge film properties this early into development but I’m sorry – the idea of half-bird/half-teens going up against a pack of man-wolves just sounds like the most ludicrous thing I’ve heard all year. It’s a film titled MAXIMUM RIDE and is based on a series of novels written by James Patterson, the hacky writer who churns out endless thrillers named after nursery rhymes like “Four Blind Mice” and “Pop Goes the Weasel.”

Sony Pictures wisely dropped the project but now it looks like Universal might pick it up out of turnaround. If the film sounds like some vague ripoff of TWILIGHT, you win yourself a prize. That’s exactly the formula mentioned (cheap budget, teen cast, based-on-a-novel) when noting why the project is seeing a new life. It even has Catherine Hardwick attached to direct!

Just like LORD OF THE RINGS spawned a number of ridiculous fantasy-themed films, we seem to be in that era of TWILIGHT saturation where we’re trying to replicate the success of those films. The fact is no one knows why those films are successful. Universal tried, and failed, to tap into the TWILIGHT market with THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT (though in fairness, that movie wasn’t developed or filmed with that in mind) and hopefully this project – which is, I repeat, about bird-teenagers escaping from a lab and being chased by man-wolves – will slowly fade away.