Maximum Ride is one of the few sci fi series I have actually read. Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”….and this. Wow, apparently I need to read more, getting very close to reading “Ready Player 1” and have always been a huge fan of the books Michael Crichton wrote, but for some reason I was really drawn to James Patterson’s writing in this series.
Yes, James Patterson, like Nicholas Sparks, has written some sappy crap in his time. He also now co-writes a thousand books a year and makes eleventy billion dollars in options and back ends. [his payout on that awful “Alex Cross” movie was over a million bucks] BUT I will say, this concept had some serious legs. So when I started reading “Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment” when it came out in 2005 I was pleasantly surprised to find out it didn’t totally suck. The characters are fun, the drama and action are somewhat surreal (these kids can fly, with wings), they have names like Fang and Gasman, it’s just a fun journey. They break out of their pseudo “school” and go on adventures trying to find out who they can trust, their friendship is tested and the family bond they forge makes you want to keep reading so that the story doesn’t end. I thought it jumped off the rails a bit at “Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports” but I’m betting this could be made into a totally excellent trilogy.
That being said, major studios have been trading the rights to this project back and forth for years, mired in production delays, petty controversy, opinions and option hangups from Patterson (this guy has been getting probably 100 grand a year just to watch the studios keep it on the shelf), and casting difficulties have meant that we might not ever get to see Max and the other misfits make the silver screen. Silver lining? Oh yes, it appears that Collective Digital Studio is going to pick up the option to bankroll and produce it as a web series. CDS, also responsible for helping Freddie Wong and “Video Game High School” get into more markets and alternative media platforms outside YouTube, will hopefully try and capture the enormous online presence that exists around the Maximum Ride franchise and build up buzz for a continued series like VGHS.
Speaking of VGHS, they just inked a distribution deal with Lionsgate, and Freddie W is being called a visionary, having reached a billion hits on YouTube and over 6 million subscribers. CDS is going to try and bring in collective dollars, while Lionsgate is going to allow them to use the Summit and LG platforms and models for reaching international markets.
<–Freddie W (wiki)
Original story from The Wrap