Jason Priestley has signed on to direct the romantic comedy Mud Puppy, from Angel Entertainment and Lexico Prods.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film centers on a playboy wine-lover battling a female environmentalist for control of a frog-plagued wine vineyard.

Mud Puppy is based on a true story about a British Columbia vineyard overcome by pesky amphibians. Monica Hilborn penned the script.

No word on casting. Production is set for summer 2011.

In other Canadian film news, Vincenzo Natali is to direct the big-screen adaptation of cyberpunk author William Gibson's 1984 masterwork Neuromancer, it was announced Thursday by indie producer Fire Development Inc. and pay TV operator Astral Media's the Harold Greenberg Fund.

Joseph Khan was previously tapped to direct the Gibson novel, with Hayden Christensen starring, before Natali stepped in to lens the picture.

Neuromancer tells the story of a washed-up computer hacker hired by a mysterious employer to work on the ultimate hack.

Other homegrown films receiving backing from Astral Media include Thom Fitzgerald writing and directing Consecrated Ground, based on the stage play by George Elroy Boyd.

And Kari Skogland is set to direct Prisoner of Tehran, a dramatic thriller based on an autobiographical novel by Toronto writer Marina Nemat.