The young-adult sci-fi/fantasy bubble burst toward the end of the last decade, The Divergent Series: Allegiant cleft in two and left for dead as the sacrificial lamb of extraordinary teens saving a heavily factional world; The Mortal Instruments facing the mortality of their own devices. But, like The Maze Runner, it seems something has made it through to the other side. And Ben Affleck is going to direct it.
Deadline brings word that Affleck is set to direct Disney’s Keeper of the Lost Cities, an adaptation of a book series that is exactly the sort of wildly popular young-adult fantasy pablum its generic name implies. The now eight-book story focuses on Sophie Foster, a very special 12-year-old who uses her unique telepathic powers to train a winged unicorn and fight the shady Black Swan organization. She is of course aided by her marginally diverse group of friends who also wear little wizard cloaks.
Honestly, what year is this? Has Disney+’s The Lightning Thief mulligan really reanimated this monster? And where is the Buzzfeed quiz to find out which school of telepathy I belong to?
