The movie star is dead, and here to replace him or her is the movie franchise. So many times have we seen replacements for Lord of the Rings and the dwindling Harry Potter films. Most, like the brilliant His Dark Materials trilogy or the Dark is Rising novels, fail to progress. But some, like the Twilight films, make so much money that it only perpetuates the studios’ search for more series with built-in audiences that they can market the hell out of. Cue Ender’s Game.

This week an LA Times blog broke the news that Gavin Hood is developing the first movie of a potential franchise, after Wolfgang Peterson dropped out (Maybe we’ll get a film that doesn’t give more time to explosions than characters or plot). Hood made his name with the acclaimed South African drama Tsotsi, which picked up the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2006. Since then Hood directed the not-so-acclaimed Rendition and Wolverine. It’s time to up his game with Ender’s Game.

Written by Orson Scott Card, the series of 11 novels starts with Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a boy who excels in a military school designed to train teens for a war with an aggressive alien race known as the Formics. But when Ender realises that his battle simulations are real, he begins to regret the destruction he causes. The first novel happens to be a favourite of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The project is only in development so don’t expect the film to hit our screens anytime soon.