Alfonso Cuarón has signed up to direct Children of Men a futuristic thriller and adaptation of a novel by British author P.D. James.

In the novel, in a (typically dystopian) near future humans have lost the ability to procreate. The young rule cruelly while the old suffer. When the youngest person on earth dies, chaos erupts. Theo, cousin of the iron-fisted Warden Xan of England, opposed to his totalitarian Logan's Run style rule, goes on the run with the now most sought after person on the planet - the last remaining pregnant woman.

Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Charlie Hunnam (Green Street) have signed on to star.

Universal will hopefully market this better than Dreamworks did with The Island, when it is released on September 29th 2006.