Richard Curtis to adapt adventure novel Trash

Notting Hill and Love Actually scribe Richard Curtis has been hired to adapt Andy Mulligan’s adventure novel Trash into a movie script.

Having recently worked on War Horse , Curtis seems to be leaving his romcom comfort zone far behind at the moment, with Trash featuring kiddie protagonists from a Third World country. Not exactly Hugh Grant material, is it?

With the book’s rights snapped up by Working Title, Stephen Daldry ( The Hours, The Reader , above) has been tapped to direct.

Set in the not-too-distant future, Trash follows three ‘dumpsite boys’ living in a Third World country who pick through rubbish on the outskirts of a city.

One day, one of the boys discovers a mysterious treasure that he decides to keep himself – despite offers from the police for it. His decision to keep the object tips him into a terrifying mystery.

It’s a definite change of pace for Curtis, though the poverty vibe and the human drama inherent in the story are very much Daldry’s thing.