EXCLUSIVE: Josh Trank has signed with Sony Pictures to develop to direct Shadow Of The Colossus, a big-scale live-action adaptation of the bestselling Sony video game. The film is being produced by Kevin Misher. The studio is interviewing writers to work with Trank, who after directing the $13 million sleeper hit Chronicle has become the go-to guy for big popcorn pictures. Trank takes on a Fumito Ueda-created game that has a strong narrative arc, along with the obligatory creature quotient to get the visual effects crowd excited.

The protagonist is a young man who thinks his lover has died. Desperate to bring her back, he heads into a forbidden land, and summons a demon who can wake the dead. The price for bringing back his girl: slay 16 colossi that dominate this mystical place. These are skyscraper-sized giants that rise from the ground, fly through the air and come from the water. As the young man works through his quest on horseback, he begins to wonder if he is on a noble pursuit to bring back his lover, or perhaps has made a deal with the devil and is being used. Trank has been a fan of the game since it launched in 2005, and sought out the job.

Trank is separately developing two Marvel superhero franchises in Fantastic Four for Fox and the Spider-Man spinoff Venom for Sony Pictures, and he’s also aligned to the Warner Bros comic book adaptation Red Star. He’s repped by WME and Management 360. Misher is separately prepping MGM’s remake of Carrie, and Misher Film execs Andy Berman and Kevin Chang are overseeing Shadow Of The Colossus. WME reps Trank.