I’m getting so giddy for this movie already and production hasn’t even started! But how can you not be excited for The Maze Runner to become reality, at least on screen, when it’s such an adventurous and crazy story?
Filming gets underway Monday for 20th Century Fox’s big-screen adaptation of James Dashner‘s best-selling 2009 young-adult novel, a mysterious survival saga that passionate fans describe as a fusion of Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games and Lost.
The illustration above is something first-time feature director Wes Ball created himself for inspiration. “It was for me, really. I like writing images,” says Ball, who previously worked as a special effects designer. “I started daydreaming about what it’s like to be at those doors and looking up at those walls.”
As cameras begin to roll on the film, which will open Feb. 14, 2014, he offered it up to Entertainment Weekly as a teaser for readers who have long imagined the novel’s menacing labyrinth.
And what a teaser it is! How small the boys look as compared to the sheer magnitude and height of the walls. Wes knows the challenges involved with this movie and the concept. But luckily that hasn’t stopped this guy from creating this world on his directorial debut on a feature film. He knows that Thomas is special and makes him so in the art while still maintaining the fear of venturing out in such a great maze.
A moment like that is what Ball hints at amid the tiny figures in this concept drawing. “Thomas is the boy who takes that step forward when everybody else takes a step back,” he says.
Another challenge: the maze changes every day. Despite its imposing size, the walls somehow shift in the night, and so those who run out to map it tend to find their efforts useless the next day.
What makes Thomas different than the others?
“He’s curious,” Ball says. “That’s partly perceived as a threat, but it actually may be the thing that gets him out.”
Concept are can be so much grander sometimes than the vision that comes onto screen, but I’m hopeful this will be a great adventure to see on the big screen.
Read the full article at EW.com.
