Columbia Pictures is all set and ready to develop a big-screen franchise based on James Patterson’s best-selling novel series “Maximum Ride,” according to Variety.

The story focuses on six kids who underwent genetic modification to be 98 percent human and 2 percent bird. After escaping from the laboratories they’re held at, the children are pursued by a gang of werewolves sent to track them down.

Don Payne, screenwriter of “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” is writing the script.

Producer Avi Arad thinks “Maximum Ride” would make a good big-screen franchise. "The ‘Maximum Ride’ books use man-made mutation as a metaphor of humans trying to take advantage of human frailty and interfere with nature," he told Variety.

I guess Arad knows what he’s talking about. After all, he’s a big-time Hollywood producer who worked on films such as “Spider-Man,” “X-Men” and “Iron Man.”

As far as the story goes, I never read any of Patterson’s books and can't comment on them. Have you? Let me know what you think.