She’s got years to go before she stops playing Rey, but Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley also has time for outside projects—like an adaptation of the first book in Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking YA series, from Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman. It’s set in a world where every creature can read the thoughts of others.
The book is centered on the only boy in a town of men, who makes a startling discovery that forces him to flee with only his dog in hand. With the townspeople in pursuit, the duo stumbles upon a strange and silent girl. They set off on a white-knuckle journey in which the boy must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
It seems pretty likely which character Ridley would portray in that scenario. Chaos Walking is a trilogy, with the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, hitting shelves in 2008. Subsequent volumes include The Ask and the Answer (2009) and Monsters of Men (2011), which won the prestigious Carnegie Medal.
The move to the big screen has been rattling around Hollywood for some time, with Robert Zemeckis once attached to direct, and Charlie Kaufman at one point planning to write the script. Kaufman was later replaced by Jamie Linden (Money Monster); Liman came aboard the project this past June. With the casting of Ridley, it sounds like things are finally moving forward.