James Ponsoldt works like he’s really got something to prove. Just a year after his alcoholism drama, Smashed, premiered at Sundance to great success, his similarly-toned follow-up, The Spectacular Now, is on the verge of debuting at Park City. If that goes well, the young upstart should be granted a lot of options very soon — and news indicates things did, in fact, pan out.

According to THR, the writer-director has been contracted to adapt a YA (guess how many installments) trilogy, Pure, for Fox 2000. The recently-released novel, from author Julianna Baggott, is also unsurprisingly for the YA trilogy mold, set in a post-apocalyptic world; here, there are only two kinds of existing people. One sect is called “the Pures,” a group living in a dome that keeps them in good shape, while “the Wretches” are “scarred by the devastation.” Bringing either side together are Partridge, a Pure boy searching for his mother, and Pressia, a Wretch refusing to fight for alongside his fellow Wretches in battle.

So, like Smashed and The Spectacular Now, there’s some romance at its core which, though different, makes Ponsoldt‘s dual duties as writer and director more sensible. It’ll actually be more interesting to see the ways in which he’ll stretch visual vocabulary for the world of Pure — so long as he understands the need to actually do something really new. These films don’t just become compelling based on what’s written down.

Is Ponsoldt taking a wise step by going with a franchise next? What are some first impressions of Pure?