Peter Jackson to try his hand at dystopian YA films with Mortal Engines
Perhaps hedging his bets in case that Tintin sequel never comes to pass, Peter Jackson is going to give the dystopian YA genre a shot. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Lord Of The Rings director is producing and co-writing an adaptation of Mortal Engines. Philip Reeve’s quartet of novels is set in a futuristic, steampunk London that’s kind of hell on wheels. Following a war and some catastrophic seismic events, the English city is literally on the move, essentially feasting on other settlements’ resources to keep itself chugging along. Despite this development, the Mortal Engines world is bereft of technology; what little remains is revered. There’s also something called “Municipal Darwinism,” in case the story wasn’t sufficiently heady for you.