Sarah Polley is poised to direct an adaptation of Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood's 1996 novel about a double murder in the wilds of Canada. Based on a true-crime tale from 1843, the book spins the story of 16-year-old Grace Marks, who was convicted of the murder of a wealthy landowner and his mistress.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film will be handled by Polley's production outfit, Tangled Productions, with funding provided by Astral Media's Harold Greenberg Fund. "It's an ambitious project for her to take on," Alan Bacchus, programme manager at the Harold Greenberg Fund, told the National Post. "It's darker material. It can be shocking. It can be brutal. She cited some influences in her notes as well, like Days of Heaven and McCabe and Mrs Miller. The fact that she's going for an idiosyncratic take on a period film is interesting."

Polley, 32, made her name as an actor, with roles in The Sweet Hereafter, Go, eXistenZ and Dawn of the Dead. She made her directing debut with the 2006 drama Away From Her, based on a short story by Alice Munro, which won Oscar nominations for best adapted screenplay and for Julie Christie's performance as a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Polley's second feature, the comedy-drama Take This Waltz, premiered at last year's Toronto film festival.

In other literary-related film news, James Franco has signed a deal with Amazon to write his debut novel. Entitled Actors Anonymous, the book is rumoured to be a thinly veiled account of Franco's life in Hollywood. The 127 Hours star previously published a short-story collection, Palo Alto, in October 2010.