Those in the US may recognise Will Poulter from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but us Brits may well have seen him in the likes of Son Of Ranbow, Wild Bill and even TV’s School Of Comedy.
Now 21-years-old, he’s long shown a lot of promise, which may be coming to fruition, as we’ll see him later this year opposite Jennifer Aniston in We’re The Millers, and now Deadline reports that he’s circling the lead in the planned adaptation of James Dashner’s young adult novel, The Maze Runner.
The Maze Runner is the first book in James Dashner’s sci-fi trilogy. The story follows a boy named Thomas who wakes up in a strange place called the Glade with no memory aside from his first name. The Glade is an enclosed structure populated by other boys, and is surrounded by tall, stone walls that protect them from monsters called Grievers that live in the Maze, which surrounds them.
Every day, some of the kids, known as Runners, venture into the labyrinth trying to map the ever-changing pattern of walls in an attempt to find an exit. As soon as Thomas arrives, unusual things begin to happen and the others grow suspicious of him. The Maze seems familiar to Thomas, but he’s unable to make sense of the place despite his extraordinary abilities as a Runner. When the first girl arrives in the Glade, she brings a message that she will be the last one to ever arrive in the Glade, as the end is near.
The book has been compared to The Hunger Games and Divergent, so there are big hopes for the film version, and if it succeeds it could certainly give Poulter’s career a big bump – assuming he signs on, of course.