Chris Columbus is a pretty big part of most of our childhoods whether we recognize the name or not. As a writer, Columbus first gave us Gremlins and nearly everyone’s favorite movie, The Goonies, and as a director he gave us the first two Home Alone films (the good ones), as well as his most famous efforts, the first and second Harry Potter films. His latest effort, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, may have missed the mark at the box office, but Columbus isn’t going to let one flop break him down.

Deadline has it that the Potter director is in talks to step into the director’s chair to helm The Secret Life of Road Crews, which follows a small group of workers who find themselves defending the Earth from a race of underground-dwelling baddies. Kevin Lund and his long time TV writing partner TJ Scott penned the script which is currently being touched up by Hangover Part II writer Craig Mazin at Paramount.

Details of the story are slim so we can’t be sure whether Columbus will be continuing his trend of directing films aimed at a younger audience, or if he’ll be making a change The Secret Life of Road Crews becoming his first foray into real, actual horror. The film mostly sounds like it’s going to be silly fun, but we may be surprised once Mazin finishes his rewrites and more details hit the web. More on this as it comes to us.