Sony Pictures has hired Secretariat director Randall Wallace to develop an adaptation of Todd Burpo's best selling book Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back.

The book centers Colton Burpo, who claims to have visited heaven after a near death experience during an appendectomy. No one believes the boy until he starts telling stories identifying people who have died.

Joe Roth and Sparkle's T.D. Jakes are producing, with Chris Parker (Battle of The Year: The Dream Team) providing the screenplay.

The director is also in talks to helm Walden Media's WWII movie The Conscientious Objector and is writing New Regency's Gunslingers, starring Vince Vaughn.

No production schedule has been released for the project.