UK production company Little Bird has optioned teen horror novel Piggies as the first title under its recently-launched teen film arm.

The book by Nick Gifford follows a youngster who is transported to a parallel world inhabited by vampires. Nahrein Mirza, who heads Little Bird's teen arm, is teaming up on the project with Lizzie Francke, who oversees the company's horror label, the Ministry Of Fear.

Little Bird launched the teen arm with support from National Lottery administrator the UK Film Council, with which it has a slate and overheads deal. The busy production company, which is headed by Jonathan Cavendish and James Mitchell, has this year shot Churchill: The Hollywood Years, with Neve Campbell and Christian Slater, and thriller Trauma, director Marc Evans' highly-anticipated follow-up to horror-thriller My Little Eye.

Little Bird's push into teen fare comes as a host of UK producers are exploring the market for UK teen and so-called tweener titles (See UK Word Of Mouth in this week's Screen International).