Do you know your barn owls from your spotted owls? Can you tell an eagle owl from a snowy owl at 100 paces? Well if you, you're in for a treat, because Zach Snyder has signed on to bring Kathryn Lasky's owl-erific Guardians of Ga'Hoole series to the big screen in animated form.
The series of children's books, of which 14 have already been published and 25 are planned (Ha! See, JK Rowling? Seven-book epics are for wimps!), follow the adventures of Soren, a male Barn Owl who escapes from an evil brainwashy owl orphanage and then goes on a journey to reach the titular Guardians, to join them and fight the sinister "Pure Ones" who threaten the forest of Tyto where they all live.
The film's being written by John A Mighty Heart Orloff and John Master and Commander Collee, an interesting team given this kid-friendly subject-matter. It's set to be Snyder's first fully-animated film, after the heavily CG-ed worlds of 300 and Watchmen, and Sydney's Animal Logic, who made Happy Feet, have the project on fast-track for release in 2009 or 2010, which in animation terms is practically next week.
No word yet on where this leaves Snyder's other announced projects, but given that he still follows a Spartan-like training regime and has obscene amounts of energy, don't be surprised if he just makes several films at once.