Splice director Vincenzo Natali heads into Tunnels

Director Vincenzo Natali has done some intriguing work — he made a splash with his debut CUBE, a paranoid low-budget tale of strangers trapped in a giant killer hi-tech maze, and he followed that with the sneaky CYPHER (aka COMPANY MAN), an underappreciated sci-fi headbender. Even his little-seen roommate battle NOTHING has a certain something.

Now that his genetic cautionary tale SPLICE will see a wide release thanks to Joel Silver’s Dark Castle company, Natali is moving on to his next project TUNNELS.

Based on a bestselling book series by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, TUNNELS tells “the story of Will, a 14-year-old boy driven by a fascination of the buried past, who is drawn into a subterranean world after his archaeologist father abruptly goes missing. This hidden civilization, beautiful and unforgiving, is dominated by a sinister, vicious race called the Styx, who have presided over generations of enslaved colonists.”

Kid-friendly horror? Sounds like a pretty neat premise, and should be anything but straightforward in Natali’s hands. Producer Mark Canton claims it “represents the next level in family entertainment, combining a science-based reality reminiscent of the classic fiction of Verne and Wells, but in a completely contemporary setting, with today’s immersive cinematic technology to create a believable, yet unforgettable movie-going experience.”