Looks like our man Vincenzo Natali has hit the jackpot.
The CUBE and SPLICE director has just agreed to take on TUNNELS, a film adaptation of the first installment of the New York Times best-selling children’s series by first-time authors Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. Relativity Media, the production behind such films as PUBLIC ENEMIES and ZOMBIELAND, is on board as well. Simon Sandquist and Joel Bergvall (directors of the much-delayed POSSESSION, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar) wrote the screenplay.
Achieving sales of more than a million copies and published in more than forty countries worldwide, the authors have already completed two sequels to the series – Deeper, published in ’08, and the third installment, Freefall to be published in the USA in Spring 2010.
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.
No production schedule has been revealed, but seems as though this sucker is on the fast track. Expect to hear some casting news soon.
Sarah Michelle Gellar of POSSESSION “fame”