Writer/director Edgar Wright may have pulled out of Marvel's Ant-Man project, but that doesn't mean he has any less busy of a schedule. It was recently reported that Wright's next project would be the mysterious Baby Driver, and now it's been revealed that he's been tapped to direct Grasshopper Jungle, an adaptation of a YA book that follows two friends who accidentally unleash an end-of-the-world army of giant praying mantises.

Deadline reports that Sony has approached Wright to direct Grasshopper Jungle off a script by Scott Rosenberg (Beautiful Girls) that's based on a book of the same name by author Andrew Smith Dutton. Rosenberg is also producing the project with Matt Tolmach and Nira Park. Though the book, released in February 2014, was written for a YA audience, it has been perceived as material that's also accessible to adults, being a creature feature with plenty of emotional substance.

For those unfamiliar with the book, here is the plot (via Andrew Smith):

"In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend Robby have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things.

This is the truth. This is history.
It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it.

You know what I mean.

Funny, intense, complex, and brave, Grasshopper Jungle brilliantly weaves together everything from testicle-dissolving genetically modified corn to the struggles of recession-era, small-town America in this groundbreaking coming-of-age stunner."

Source: Deadline
  • Derek Anderson
    About the Author - Derek Anderson

    Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.

    When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.