Edgar Wright will swap long-gestating Marvel comic book movie Ant-Man for the science fiction adventure film Grasshopper Jungle, based on the popular young adult novel by Andrew Smith, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Smith's novel centres on a group of Iowan teenagers who accidentally unleash an unstoppable army of "horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things", according to a synopsis on the author's website. The book, published in the US in February, is described as a coming-of-age story that "brilliantly weaves together everything from testicle-dissolving genetically modified corn to the struggles of recession-era, small-town America". The film's insect-centred storyline will inevitably see it compared to Ant-Man, but the project otherwise looks like fresh territory for the director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and last year's The World's End.

Wright left Ant-Man in June after eight years of development, due to creative differences with Marvel. The superhero origins tale, which retains stars Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas, will now shoot next month with Yes Man's Peyton Reed taking over as director.

Deadline reported last week that Wright's next film will be Baby Driver, a "collision of crime, action, music and sound", which the film-maker originally intended to follow his 2010 comic-book movie Scott Pilgrim Vs the World into production.

It is not known if Wright's regular collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will appear in either of the two new films.