Here’s an interesting career development for the director, writer, and producer of films including About A Boy, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Golden Compass, and A Better Life. Chris Weitz’ new venture is a novel, The Young World, described as “the first in an epic, post-apocalyptic trilogy” due in Spring 2014. Hachette-owned Little, Brown says that there was a “heated auction” leading up to the acquisition of U.S. and Canada print, electronic, and audio rights by its Fiction Editorial Director Alvina Line and William Morris Endeavor’s Suzanne Gluck. The publisher also bought rights for 11 additional markets including France, Israel, Germany, and Spain. The story is set in New York City following a catastrophe that kills everyone but teenagers. They must learn to survive in a world with no heat, running water, TV, video games, phones or Internet — and no authority figures. ”These young survivors experience combat, romance, and post-apocalyptic nostalgia for a pop culture and technology they entirely took for granted,” Weitz says.