With the first adaptation of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games currently dominating the box office, it's no surprise that studios are eager to pin down "the next Hunger Games" franchise (already). One candidate for the coveted spot may be author Lex Thomas' Quaranteen trilogy (Lex Thomas is actually Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies). It tells of a group of high school kids locked down under military quarantine after an explosion destroyed parts of their school and infected them with a virus that is deadly to adults. The thousand students begin to form gangs along the lines of social cliques in order to fight for survival. Black Forest Film Group has acquired the feature rights to the first novel in the trilogy, The Loners. Hit the jump for more. Variety reports quaranteen-the-loners-lex-thomasthat Hrabe and Voorhies will write the screenplay for Quaranteen: The Loners. (I should also point out that I've seen the title listed as both Quaranteen and Quarantine, so keep an eye out for both.) The Loners novel will be released by EgmontUSA this coming July. The plot concerns two brothers trying to survive in the school on their own, until a girl comes along and threatens to complicate their relationship. Here's the description from the first novel (via Amazon):

It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.

In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.