After Ant-Man: Edgar Wright to direct adaptation of Grasshopper Jungle

More insects ahead as Wright brings Andrew Smith's young-adult story, featuring 'horny, hungry' 6ft praying mantises, to the big screen



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Edgar Wright will swap long-gestating Marvel comic book movie Ant-Man for the science fiction adventure film Grasshopper Jungle, based on the popular young adult novel by Andrew Smith, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Smith's novel centres on a group of Iowan teenagers who accidentally unleash an unstoppable army of "horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things", according to a synopsis on the author's website. The book, published in the US in February, is described as a coming-of-age story that "brilliantly weaves together everything from testicle-dissolving genetically modified corn to the struggles of recession-era, small-town America". The film's insect-centred storyline will inevitably see it compared to Ant-Man, but the project otherwise looks like fresh territory for the director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and last year's The World's End.

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