Universal Studios has set a Christmas 2018 release date for Peter Jackson's next movie "Mortal Engines", an adaptation of Philip Reeve's award-winning novel of the same name. The studio has announced that the sci-fi movie will be released in theaters across the U.S. on December 14, 2018, AceShowbiz reports.

Jackson is producing the movie along with Fran Walsh, his longtime collaborator behind "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogy. He won't sit behind the lens, but is serving as a co-writer along with Philippa Boyens. Jackson gives the helming duty to Christian Rivers, who will make his feature directorial debut with the fantasy flick.

"Mortal Engines" will be the first film of a planned movie series adapted from Reeve's novels, which also include "Predator's Gold", "Infernal Devices" and "A Darkling Plain". Since the first novel was published in 2001 by Scholastic, it has won several prestigious awards, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Set in a future world, "Mortal Engines" chronicles Earth's cities which now roam the globe on huge wheels, devouring each other in a struggle for ever diminishing resources. On one of these massive Traction Cities, a teen named Tom Natsworthy has an unexpected encounter with a mysterious young woman from a territory known as the Outlands, who will change the course of his life forever.