Neil Burger had planned for a while to direct The Dark Fields, an adaptation of Alan Glynn's novel that was set to start Shia LaBeouf. As far back as last fall, Burger admitted that shooting wasn't happened on time-- LaBeouf had just broken his hand, which delayed even something as massive as Transformers 2. And now it looks like Burger is taking on another new project, leaving the entire fate of Dark Fields in doubt.

Instead, Burger will be tackling Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, the 1971 children's novel about a field mouse who teams up with lab rats to save her home. Variety reports that Cary Granat, the former Walden Media exec behind Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D and Spy Kids, will produce the film, which will presumably also be children-friendly.

The story was already turned into a film, a 1982 animated version, but presumably this one will be using CGI if not some kind of animation-live-action hybrid. I didn't read the book as a kid, so I have no outrage to share with you. Any big NIHM fans want to step in and provide it for me?