With Twilight coming to an end and with Harry Potter already over, the world of young adult fiction franchises is looking pretty thin. The next series to take a stab at filling the void left by sexy vampires and teen wizards is The Hunger Games. The books are widely popular and the upcoming films are headlined by hot and talented young actors who could carry a series for a few years, so it behooves the studio to hedge their bets and begin working on the sequel as soon as possible.

TheWrap.com recently revealed that the studio has brought on writer Simon Beaufoy, whose credits include The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire, to begin work on adapting the second novel in the series. This isn’t exactly a huge surprise as a November 2013 release date has already been penciled in for the second film.

Director Gary Ross is supervising the script writing process as he plans on jumping into the sequel as soon as he is done with his work on the first film. Beaufoy is a very interesting choice who has had great success with recent adaptations winning an Oscar for his adaptation of Slumdog Millionaire and receiving another nomination for his work on 127 Hours. You can say what you want about a film that is aiming for the Twilight audience, but you have to give them props for using quality, talented people.

Timur Bekmambetov is a visionary. Most people in America don’t register that name, but in his home land of Russia he is responsible for two of the most successful and visually stunning movies ever made in that country. He made the leap to American cinema with the fantastic adaptation of Wanted, and is currently in post on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Bekmambetov’s visual flair is his hallmark and anything he decides is worth his or his production company’s time promises to be pretty to look at in the very least. Variety is reporting that he has picked up the novel “One Hundred Percent Lunar Boy.” For those unfamiliar with the book, here is a synopsis:

Set 2000 years in the future, novel’s protag is 16-year-old Hieronymus Rexaphin, who lives on the now-colonized moon, where he meets a girl from Earth who is inexplicably drawn to him because of his special — some say dangerous — condition, which gives him the ability to see the future path of time and matter. 

It is unknown if Bekmambetov plans on directing, or if he will just produce. All we do know at this time is that the rights have been secured and a writer has been brought on to adapt. Either way this project sounds right up his alley, and should provide cinema goers with a visually exciting adventure film in the near future.

Even though this website could technically be called a “Blog” and those of us who contribute to it are known as “Bloggers,” we like to think of ourselves as writers. So, when other writers get recognized, as they have by the Writer’s Guild of America’s nominations for it’s awards today, we take notice.

We also take notice when movies that seem an odd choice for awards get nominated anyway. We will leave it to you, good readers, to decide which of the following nominees for Writers Guild awards seems a bit out of place.

Winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, February 19, 2012, during simultaneous ceremonies in Hollywood and New York. Check out all the nominees (and more) from the official press release:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Studios

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight

Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures

With Juno, Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman solidified themselves in cinematic history with Cody even winning an Oscar for best screenplay. So it makes sense the duo would try to strike gold again with a whole new gang of wacky characters and off-beat tone in their latest collaboration Young Adult.

That seems to be the plan for the movie, or at least what we can gather from this new red-band trailer. For those who need a bit more other than seeing the amazing cast of Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, and Patton Oswalt, here’s the synopsis:

Charlize Theron plays Mavis Gary, a writer of teen literature who returns to her small hometown to relive her glory days and attempt to reclaim her happily married high school sweetheart (Wilson). When returning home proves more difficult than she thought, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a former classmate (Oswalt) who hasn’t quite gotten over high school, either.

Take a look at the new trailer after the jump in which Theron gets a bit nuts. Young Adult is set to hit theaters on December 9th.

Last night, those in the Los Angeles area were treated to a nice surprise. The hip folks over at Cinefamily’s Silent Movie Theater premiered the full miniseries of Adult Swim’s newest live action comedy, The Heart, She Holler. Opening to a packed house, the show definitely hit it big with this audience, incest jokes and all.

The show comes from the Vernon Chatman, the brilliantly twisted mind behind shows like Wonder Showzen and Xavier Renegade Angel. If you think you know anything about how Adult Swim picks their new content, you don’t know anything about this show. Here’s a brief synopsis that does little-to-no justice to the madness of the show.

Boss Hoss Heartshe owns 98.5% of Heartshe Holler and keeps the other 1.5% in a hidey hole.  Upon his death, the hole is opened to reveal a secret son, Hurlan. Watch as his blood grubbing heirs Hurshe, the coquettish daughter closest to Hoss’ heart and nether regions and Hambrosia, Hoss’ other only child with a fearsome ability to scorch eyeballs with her mental powers, wrestle for every sort of supremacy that power provides. Their miseries and mysteries collide in this first-ever Adult Swim six night miniseries event.

Think Twin Peaks meets Passions with a really sick spin.

We got the chance to sit down with comedy-flavored renaissance man and star of the show, Patton Oswalt, about what to expect from the show, who he doesn’t want to watch the miniseries, and what his problem with DC Entertainment is. Take a look at what he had to say after the jump.

Catch the premiere of The Heart, She Holler on Adult Swim Sunday, November 6th at 12:30am, followed by new episodes every night next week, and repeating every day this month.

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

• Want to geek up your next romantic evening? Make it so with the Lightsaber Candlesticks.

• It’s the 90s all over again as Beavis & Butthead make it back to the airwaves. here’s another trailer to get you ready.

• Speaking of retro, here are some of your favorite current games done like the were old NES games. A God of War side-scroller would actually be pretty awesome…

• Paying respects to the man himself, here’s a collection of Apple products depicting the late, great Steve Jobs.

• Love everything about the film Drive? Then you’re going to have to get one of the scorpion jackets from the film. Just drive safely.

• AMC’s Walking Dead makes its triumphant return to TV in just a few weeks, so why not check in with the world of zombies with their original webisodes.