Author Patrick Ness has been confirmed to pen the screenplay for Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming adaptation of Lord Of The Flies.

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It was announced last year that Guadagnino would be directing the new Warner Bros. adaptation of William Golding’s popular 1954 novel.

The book, which follows a group of British boarding school boys who are split into two groups after being stuck on a desert island without an authority figure, was made into a movie in 1963 by Peter Brook, and then again in 1990 by Harry Hook.

The new adaptation was originally set to be an all-female version directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel. The studio has since “changed its course and is aiming to hew closer to the original novel” with Guadagnino at the helm, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Guadagnino’s Lord Of The Flies has now found its writer in Patrick Ness, who has twice won the Carnegie Medal, which recognises literary work for children and young adults, for Monsters of Men, his third book in the Chaos Walking trilogy, and Monster Calls.

A Monster Calls, which follows the story of a boy who seeks the help of a tree monster to cope with his single mother’s terminal illness, was made into a movie in 2016, starring Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones and Lewis MacDougall.

Ness also worked on Lionsgate’s adaptation of Chaos, which stars Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, and created and wrote the 2016 Doctor Who spin-off Class.

No release date has yet been announced for Lord Of The Flies.

Meanwhile, Suzanne Collins, author of the hugely successful Hunger Games series of novels, has confirmed that that the franchise’s new prequel The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes will be getting a big screen adaptation.

A new statement confirms that Francis Lawrence will be directing the new film, having previously taken the helm for Catching Fire and both parts of Mockingjay. Collins will act as an executive producer, and adapt the screenplay herself alongside co-screenwriter Michael Arndt.