Popular American channel, the CW will be introducing a brand new show, about a young girl in a futuristic, war-torn nation who is chosen by lottery to compete for fame and fortune against a backdrop of hunger and carnage.
Does that sound familiar to you?
"The Selection" is one of eight pilots the CW is considering as a fall series and is loosely (though we think mainly) based on the massive success of the now 3 week old box office phenomenon: The Hunger Games. Speaking of the Humnger Games: producers are already looking for a writer to its sequel. The film premiered in Nairobi yesterday adn results of just how successful the launch was will be trickling in.
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The network's biggest hit, "The Vampire Diaries," rode mainly on the wave that was the "Twilight" ptrilogy success and has evidently worked wonders for the channel's fledgling ratings. Interesting to note is that The Selection will be written and produced by the Vampire Diaries writers Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain.
The "Vampire Diaries" novels predated the "Twilight" books by more than a decade. And the author of the novel "The Selection," the basis for the pilot, remembers jotting down the idea for it before "The Hunger Games" hit bookshelves.
"I totally see how it lines up with 'The Hunger Games' - there's a lottery aspect, a competition, it's in the future - and when we went to pitch it to editors, that's how my agent and I described it: 'The Hunger Games' meets 'The Bachelor,'" The Selection author Kiera Cass told TheWrap. "I don't think we expected that label to stick. But it kind of works. It's a lot lighter than 'The Hunger Games' though, so if that's something people are looking for, then they might really enjoy my book."
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She says her book has as a lighter tone though, as its lead character, America Singer, has to compete with 34 other girls for the affections of a prince in a competition held in his castle. The book's cover shows her trying on a beautiful dress.
"The Selection" isn't the CW's only hope for next season with the brand new "Beauty and the Beast" adaptation, starring "Smallville" actress Kristin Kreuk being an interesting highlight.
