Col pic Flocks to Hardwicke

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Having put her stamp on "Twilight," Catherine Hardwicke is in talks with Sony's Columbia Pictures to develop and direct a film adaptation of another young-adult fantasy series, "Maximum Ride."

The five-volume series by James Patterson chronicles six teens, known as the Flock, who are genetically altered so that they are part human and part bird. Learning to fly, they escape the laboratory where they have been housed and are pursued by a pack of creatures called the Erasers that are part human and part wolf.

Don Payne ("Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer") is writing a screenplay. Seaside Entertainment's Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul are on board as producers, with Patterson as exec producer.