An all-female "Lord of the Flies" film will be brought to the big screen by Warner Bros., with Scott McGehee and David Siegel signed to write and direct, Deadline said in an exclusive report.
The casting is a major departure from the 1950s novel that has been turned into movies twice – in 1963 and 1990. The novel, which McGehee and Siegel said that they will stay faithful two, focuses on young students stranded on a remote island where they descend into a "savage social order," Deadline noted.
"We want to do a very faithful but contemporized adaptation of the book, but our idea was to do it with all girls rather than boys," Siegel, best known for "The Deep End" (2001) and "What Maisie Knew (2012) with McGehee, told Deadline.
"It is a timeless story that is especially relevant today, with the interpersonal conflicts and bullying, and the idea of children forming a society and replicating the behavior they saw in grownups before they were marooned," Siegel continued.
McGehee added that the all-girls cast will allow audiences to see the work anew since it was done with all-male casts twice already.
"It breaks away from some of the conventions, the ways we think of boys and aggression," McGehee told Deadline. "People still talk about the movie and the book from the standpoint of pure storytelling. It is a great adventure story, real entertainment, but it has a lot of meaning embedded in it as well."
McGehee and Siegel said rights deals were recently completed and they are just starting to write. Deadline did not mention casting as of yet.
The movie continues Hollywood's string of gender-switching remakes. "Ghostbusters" was remade with an all-female leads and made $128.3 billion at the box office last year, according to Box Office Mojo.
The 1984 hit "Splash" is being remade with Channing Tatum playing the mermaid instead of Daryl Hannah, noted The Hollywood Reporter. "Ocean's 8," a takeoff from George Clooney's "Ocean 11" series, will star big names Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway next summer.
Many on social media seemed skeptical of an all-female "Lord of the Flies."