Director Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice) has signed on to direct an adaptation of In the Tall Grass, a 2012 novella from Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, which centres on a brother and sister on a cross country road trip who find themselves fighting for their lives after reponding to a young boy’s cries for help coming from an overgrown field.

“Who would think that grass could be frightening,” Natali tells Screen Daily. “Trust Stephen King and Joe Hill to find a way. They have transformed an otherwise innocuous Kansas field into a stage for some of the most disturbing horror fiction I have ever read. When they go to assist the boy, they discover that strange forces are at work. Space is warped so that one minute they are together and the next they are miles apart. The field is an ineffable maze from which there is no escape. Before long they have lost their bearings and each other. But they are not alone…”

Production on In the Tall Grass is set to get underway in Toronto this September.