By Borys Kit and Nyay Bushan

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Shekhar Kapur, the director behind the “Elizabeth” films starring Cate Blanchett, has signed on to make the period fantasy “Larklight.”

The Warner Bros. project, based on the 2006 book by Philip Reeve, is set in an alternate Victorian-era universe where mankind has been exploring the solar system since the time of Isaac Newton. It revolves around a brother and sister who team up with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.

“It’s a $200 million project, probably the most expensive film I’ve made and will ever make,” Kapur told the Indo-Asian News Service during the weekend.

Kapur is working with writer Steven Knight (”Eastern Promises”) to adapt Reeve’s novel.

Last week, Kapur signed on to take over the director’s chair for the late Anthony Minghella for his segment of the shorts ensemble “New York, I Love You.”

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Read the book before you see the movie!
Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space