Irish film-maker Neil Jordan has signed up to write and direct the feature version of Paul Murray’s novel Skippy Dies.

Billed as South Park meets Tom Brown’s School Days, Skippy Dies follows the adventures of two unlikely room-mates, Skippy and Ruprecht, at a public school in Ireland.

The project will see him collaborating with regular producers Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen of London based Number 9 Films, who also produced Jordan’s The Crying Game and The End Of The Affair. James Flynn of Littlewave Film Productions, who was behind Jordan’s 2009 feature Ondine, is also producing.

Recent Number 9 credits include Made in Dagenham, which will have its world premiere in Toronto.

Paul Murray is represented by Rob Kraitt at AP Watt.