Noah Oppenheim to pen The Maze Runner for Catherine Hardwicke & Fox?

By Jake Dee

Posted 15 years ago

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Last month came the news that Catherine Hardwicke is maintaining her work relationship with the tween crowd, doing so via directorial adaptation of THE MAZE RUNNER for Fox. As you’ll recall, THE MAZE RUNNER is the first in a trilogy of young adult fantasy novels by James Dashner. Well, it looks like Hardwicke and company have found a writer!

According to The L.A. Times, Noah Oppenheim has been tapped to adapt the screenplay. A dubious decision, no doubt, as Oppenheim hasn’t even a single cinematic writing credit to his name at this point (although he is adaptaing SNABBA CASH for Zac Efron).

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In fact, the only showbiz experience the dude has is producing such TV programs as “Hardball With Chris Matthews” and “Today” (which he senior produced), as well as “Breakthrough with Tony Robbins”, “Crash Test” and “Losing It With Jillian”, which he exec-produced. Oppenheim also exec-produced a series called “Buried Life”, which has yet to premiere.

In case you’ve let it slip, THE MAZE RUNNER centers on:

Thomas, who wakes up to find himself in a square elevator which brings him up to the top. He is greeted by a group of boys who pull him out into their surroundings. Thomas learns that all these boys live in a place called the Glade. The Glade is surrounded by tall, stone walls with four massive doors in the center of each wall. These doors close each night to protect them from the monsters that live beyond the Glade’s walls. The monsters live in a place called the Maze which surrounds the walls around the Glade. These monsters are called Grievers which sting the Gladers if they can. The Gladers then undergo the Changing, a painful process which people can survive if given the serum in time, and come out with side effects.

I know, I know, the last thing we need is more sissified sci-fi drivel, but what do you all think about this particular story? Better than say, THE HUNGER GAMES? I AM NUMBER FOUR? Hell, TWILIGHT even? Where do you think THE MAZE RUNNER will stack up?

Source: L.A. Times

About the Author

Jake Dee

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Favorite Movies: Horror: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Silence of the Lambs, Jaws, Black read more Christmas (1974), Friday the 13th (1980), Return of the Living Dead, Halloween (1978), Last House on the Left (1973), way too many to list (in the horror genre alone, not to mention out of genre film) Non-Horror: Stand By Me, Lonely Are the Brave, Lost in Translation, Rushmore, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man, Sling Blade, The Usual Suspects, Reservoir Dogs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Harold and Maude, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, and on and on and on and mothafu*kin on

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