Hollywood thirsts for young adult films as 'Twilight' ends

In March, Open Road Films releases "The Host," a science fiction tale about alien parasites from "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer. Sony Corp's "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," about a teen girl who tries to protect the world from demons, comes out in August. Summit's drama "Ender's Game," the story of a boy who leads the charge against an alien invasion, is scheduled for November 2013.

They'll battle the latest installments of existing young adult franchises such as the "Hunger Games" sequel "Catching Fire" that comes out November 2013. Warner Brothers will release "Hobbit" movies in December 2012 and December 2013.

The fever for young adult movies is so hot among Hollywood executives that studios snap up the rights to some books before they hit store shelves to keep them out of the hands of their competitors. Screen Gems, a unit of Sony, announced October 9 it had bought rights to "Black City" a month before the book went on sale.

The studio moved quickly based on a "high level of anticipation for the property in the online community and other young adult circles," it said in a statement.

"Hunger Games" producer Lions Gate scooped up the rights before publication of "Divergent," and is making a movie for 2014 that features young Hollywood star Shailene Woodley, who played George Clooney's troubled daughter in the movie "The Descendants" last year.

The "Divergent" book series has sold more than 2 million copies, pacing ahead of both "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games" at the same point in their histories, Lions Gate CEO Jon Feltheimer told industry analysts on a November 9 conference call.

"We are putting out to our fans right now we think that this is the next big franchise," Feltheimer said.

The web is producing hot properties too. Media Rights Capital plans to develop three movies based on writer Amanda Hocking's "Trylle Trilogy" about a young girl with special powers.

Hocking gained fame by selling more than one million copies of self-published books on the Internet, an unusual feat that demonstrated fans' rabid support for the stories, said Media Rights Capital Co-CEO Modi Wiczyk.

"There is clearly a pre-existing audience," Wiczyk said. "It makes life easier."

Still, there is no guarantee book lovers will flock to a movie version of their favorite read, said Keith Simanton, managing editor of movie website IMDB.com. Film adaptations of "The Seeker" and "The Spiderwick Chronicles" failed to give birth to the kind of big movie franchises that have become the lifeblood of Hollywood's movie studios, he said.

"It is going to continue be a trend, until one of them fails in a big way," Simanton said.