Francis Lawrence, Paramount Team for ‘Red Rising’ Movie Adaptation (Exclusive)

Paramount Pictures has picked up the film rights to Red Rising, the best-selling dystopian sci-fi series by Pierce Brown.

Francis Lawrence, no stranger to dystopian sci-fi thanks to his many installments of The Hunger Games franchise, is attached to direct the adaptation of the first novel, also titled Red Rising.

Justin Rhodes, who worked with Lawrence developing Netflix’s video game adaptation Bioshock, will pen the script.

A blend of Roman mythology with science fiction, Rising is set on Mars in a future where society is set up in a color-coded class system, with the superior Golds on top. The story centers on Darrow, a young miner who is a Red, the lowest on the ladder and a people who exist to do hard labor. After seeing his love die and discovering the truth about his existence, Darrow infiltrates the Gold society with an aim to bring it down.

Six books have been published so far with a seventh on the way. In 2024, Brown announced on Instagram that the Red Rising saga had sold over 6 million copies, although it’s unclear whether that was in the U.S. or globally. The book was at one point set up for feature development at Universal and in the late 2010s was being eyed as a series.

Lawrence and Cameron MacConomy will produce for their about:blank banner, alongside Francesco Goedhuis. Brown, who also wrote a Rising comic book prequel story published by Dynamite Entertainment, will executive produce.

Rising joins the ranks of several other acclaimed literary properties either in the works or on the way from Paramount. Children of Blood and Bone is in the can and will be released Jan. 15, 2027 while Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, based on the Gabrielle Zevin novel, is currently in production with Daisy Edgar-Jones among the stars. Due to shoot next year is The Midnight Library, with Florence Pugh in the lead, and based on Matt Haig’s novel.

Lawrence, who last directed Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk, is back in the world of Panem with the upcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which Lionsgate releases Nov. 20, 2027.

Rhodes, who worked on Terminator: Dark Fate, also worked on Paramount’s The Traveler, a drama that is due to shoot next year. His Apple+ feature film Liminal, based on the graphic novel published by AWA, recently wrapped production with Vanessa Kirby and Yahya Abdul- Mateen II starring.

Lawrence is repped by CAA and Hansen Jacobson. Rhodes is repped by CAA, Adam Kolbrenner at Lit Entertainment, and Eric Suddleson at Toczek Suddleson. Brown is repped by CAA, Hannah Bowman at Liza Dawson Associates for publishing; and Dave Feldman at Brecheen Feldman.