Lionsgate is hoping it has a monster hit on its hands with the adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ young adult novel The Hunger Games.  Now the studio has pulled another book series from the young adult section of the store and will be adapting Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy.  Like Hunger Games, Ness’ books take place “in a dystopian future,” but Chaos Walking takes the adventure to a distant earth-like planet where human colonists become infected with a disease known as “The Noise” which causes all thoughts become audible.  The solution, of course, would be to use the Homer Simpson method and just loop the Meow Mix jingle in your head. Sadly, the colonists are Meow Mix-less, and  “in the ensuing chaos, a corrupt autocrat threatens to take control of the human settlements and wage war with the indigenous alien race, and only young Todd Hewitt holds the key to stopping planet wide-destruction.”

Hit the jump for the full press release.  No writer or director is attached at this point.  Doug Davison (How to Train Your Dragon) will produce.

Shane Black (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) has signed on to helm an adaptation of the Japanese manga Death Note for Warner Bros.  Deadline reports that Black, who was once one of Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriters (and rightly so), will oversee a script written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry.  Bagarozzi and Mondry are also writing the script for Black’s adaptation of Doc Savage for Sony.  Black says he’s uncertain about which project he’ll do next.

Hit the jump for what he had to say about Death Note along with a brief synopsis of the project.

Godzilla, the fire-breathing behemoth that loves to terrorize Japan and fight giant moths, will make a return to U.S. cinemas soon. Last August, we reported that Legendary Pictures was eyeing the monster franchise and today we received a press release stating that Legendary has finally struck a deal with Toho for the rights to create a new film with Warner Bros. co-financing and co-producing the picture, with a planned 2012 release. Those familiar with the franchise might recall that the last major reboot of Godzilla was directed by Roland Emmerich in 1998, and many can only pray that the gamma radiation emitted from Godzilla’s body doesn’t drive Legendary Pictures crazy enough to give him the film again. Surely, if this happens, Emmerich’s global doomsday scenario in 2012 might just occur…or maybe small riots of Godzilla fans.

For the full press release, including a few choice quotes from those involved, hit the jump.

Start with Leonardo da Vinci, throw in some cryptic codes and secret societies, and end with heaping helping of angels and demons.  Sound like the recipe for a new Dan Brown novel?  Guess again, it’s Warner Bros. latest effort to fictionalize history.

According to THR, WB has picked up a treatment for Leonardo da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever by producer Adrian Askarieh.  The premise is really quite logical – since Da Vinci was a great painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist, musician, architect and writer, it only stands to reason that he must have been a great action hero, too.

Askarieh – whose credits include Hitman and the upcoming Jonny Quest -will be producing with Roy Lee and Doug Davison (The Departed).  No screenwriter has been chosen yet.  In addition to da Vinci, Warners is also working on fantastical stories about King Arthur (directed by Guy Ritchie) and Marco Polo (Francis Lawrence).