The Oscar-nominated Spanish director is in development on the project with 28 Weeks Later producer Enrique Lopez Lavigne.

The $6.5m (€5m) project will be written and directed by Vigalondo and will be shot in Spain in both English and Spanish with a leading cast.

Lavigne will produce Windows alongside his associate Belen Atienza, and another major company is expected to board the project soon. Further details will be revealed at AFM later this year, but Lavigne told Screen it would be “a thriller in the mould of District 9, reasonably low budget but with impressive effects and the potential to make a huge impact.”

Lavigne’s other projects in the pipeline include The Orphanage director Juan Antonio Bayona’s English-language Tsunami drama The Impossible, starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, which is set to begin shooting later this month; Juan Carlos Fresnadillo thriller Intruders, starring Clive Owen and Daniel Bruhl, which is currently shooting in Spain; and Eduardo Chapero Jackson’s hotly anticipated debut feature Verbo, a dark fantasy film currently in post.

Vigalondo’s previous film Timecrimes about a man who travels back in time was a huge hit in Spain and is being remade in the US with United Artists. Vigalondo is also currently shooting a small budget (less than €1m) Spanish-language alien invasion film titled Extraterrestre, starring Michelle Jenner.