Shekhar Kapur is set to develop and direct Larklight, a period fantasy that Di Novi Pictures is producing for Warner Bros. Kapur, who most recently directed and wrote Elizabeth: The Golden Age, is collaborating with writer Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) to adapt Philip Reeve's novel.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 2006 book is set in a Victorian-era alternate universe in which mankind had been exploring the solar system since the time of Isaac Newton. The story revolves around a brother and sister who team with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.

"It's a $200 million project, probably the most expensive film I've made and will ever make," Kapur told the Indo-Asian News Service on the weekend.

No production date has been set.