It's always a mixed bag when the author of a book becomes a driving creative force of the adaptation of their own work. Though, Lauren Oliver's YA novel Panic seems like, to begin with, derivative of other works such as Battle Royale, Hunger Games, and countless other novels that mix coming-of-age narratives with more deadly conflicts for the teen characters. The synopsis is as follows:
Panic is a new Amazon Prime Video one-hour drama series, written and created by Lauren Oliver (based on her bestselling novel). It takes place in a small Texas town, where every summer, the graduating seniors compete in a series of challenges; the winner takes all, which they believe is their one and only chance to escape their circumstances and make their lives better. But this year, the rules have changed — the pot of money is larger than ever, and the game has become even more dangerous. The players will come face to face with their deepest, darkest fears and be forced to decide how much they are willing to risk in order to win.
As the above synopsis indicates, Oliver wrote the scripts for all ten episodes of the new series while she also executive-produced alongside Joe Roth, Jeff Kirschenbaum, Adam Schroeder, Lynley Bird, and Alyssa Altman. Directors for the episodes include Ry Russo-Young, Jamie Travis, Viet Nguyen, Megan Griffiths, and Gandja Monteiro. Check out the official trailer for the show below:
All 10 episodes of Panic will be released on May 28th on Amazon Prime Video.
I can feel the taste of human shit in my mouth just by watching this trailer.