Tomas Alfredson directing steampunk Larklight

Let The Right One In director Tomas Alfredson may be hard at work on his first English-language flick Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy , but he’s also lined up another book adap in the form of Larklight .

A young adult novel by Philip Reeve, Larklight is set in an alternate universe where space travel was invented during Victorian times. It’s a steampunk adventure following a rambling house called Larklight that is travelling through space.

Aboard the house are Art, his sister Myrtle, and their father. When giant white spiders seek to take over the universe - beginning with Larklight - the siblings must stop them.

It’s certainly a different direction for Aldredson, not only after his adap of John Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy , but also following his renowned, game-changing vampire flick. With Larklight obviously involving some serious special effects, it’s looking like a big tentpole flick for Warner Bros - another first for Alfredson.

The ‘out there’ plot has us scratching our heads, but screenwriter Steve Knight ( Eastern Promises ) gives us hope for something sinewy as well as visually arresting.

Most interesting, though, should be the character of space pirate Jack Havock, whose crew includes a human-sized blue lizard and a gigantic land crab. We bet actors all over Hollywood are picking up the phone to their agents right now…