Zack Snyder seems like an R-rated kind of guy. Not only is his filmography staunchly 17 and over, his projects on the horizon – directing and producing – have looked like R-rated films as well. Until now.

Snyder has signed on to the feature adaptation of Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a (I shit you not) 14 book and counting kid’s fantasy adventure series about a group of barn owls who weirdly live in the forest. I mean, they didn’t get called barn owls just for the shits and giggles I assume, right? Anyway, these owls must face evil and have adventures and yadda yadda.

If you think the choice of director is weird, check out the screenwriters: A Mighty Heart‘s John Orloff and Master and Commander‘s John Collee. Animation – especially animal animation – doesn’t interest me much, but seeing Snyder, Orloff and Collee all working on a cartoon like this… it gets your attention.

They’re not fooling around on this one; Warner Bros intends to have Guardians of Ga’Hoole out by 2009 or 2010. This has to mean that work has been happening all this time before Snyder was announced. The same animation house that did Happy Feet will be making the barn owls hoot.