Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer will develop the action comedy Babe In The Woods at Columbia Pictures as a directing vehicle.

The screenplay was written by Mike White and centres on a first-year female student from the Midwest who arrives at Yale and becomes a target of the New Jersey mob.

White will also produce the project through his Rip Cord Productions label alongside colleague David Bernad.

“Our experience working with Ruben on Zombieland was nothing short of amazing,” Columbia Pictures’ Matt Tolmach, who along with Doug Belgrad serves as company president, said.

“We love what Mike did with this script and could not be more thrilled to develop Babe In The Woods with these two guys. They bring the perfect blend of comedy and attitude to their projects.” 

Fleischer is also attached to direct the MRC film 30 Minutes Or Less with Ben Stiller’s Red Hour producing and Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari and Jesse Eisenberg attached to star. 

He recently sold an untitled action comedy pitch to DreamWorks, which he will direct and produce with Nicholas Stoller and Gavin Polone.

White most recently wrote and directed the pilot Enlightened, which was recently picked up by HBO. He is writing the comedy Santa Wars for Paramount Pictures, which he and Scott Rudin are producing.

Fleischer and White are represented by UTA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.