Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox has set Wes Ball to direct The Maze Runner, an adaptation of the James Dashner dystopian novel. This comes after the studio acquired his short film Ruin.

Produced by Gotham Group, The Maze Runner is a post-apocalyptic setting. The protagonist, Thomas, who after having his memory wiped is deposited in a community of boys trapped in an enormous maze. He soon learns they are part of a mysterious test, and finds it is his destiny to join the ‘maze runners’ and lead them to freedom. Peter Kang and Daria Cercek are overseeing at the studio. Noah Oppenheim wrote the first draft of the script.

Ball burst on to the scene earlier this year when his short, Ruin, became an internet sensation, amassing close to five million hits. Ball used the short to tell a sliver of the story he had been developing with fellow Florida State Film School alum, screenwriter T.S. Nowlin. The pair then sold the project preemptively to Fox last month. Ball is also aboard to direct that. Before that deal, Ball, who runs the animation/effects company Oddball Animation, sold The Treehouse to Warner Brothers. He is repped by APA, Gotham Group and attorney Rick Genow. Here is that short film Ruin: