James Franco is to direct 'Child of God'.

The '127' hours star is to start work on an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's story after his original plans to helm a film version of the author's later work 'Blood Meridian' ground to a halt.

'Child of God' follows a recently-released convict who lives outside of normal society in a Cave In the hills of East Tennessee and engages in necrophilia and other acts of "crime and degradation".

It is unclear why 'Blood Meridian' - which was due to star Scott Glenn and Luke Perry - has been shelved or whether James plans to work with the film's producer Scott Rudin on 'Child of God'.

Speaking about 'Blood Meridian', James said: "We shot a 20 minute test of it that turned out pretty well . we were gearing up to do the feature but that for various reasons it's on hold, but we are going to make a movie based on his [Cormac McCarthy's] third book 'Child Of God'."

James is currently working on two documentaries, one about his time on US soap 'General Hospital' and the other about a porn website.

He is also promoting his installation/documentary piece 'Memories of Idaho', which he collaborated on with Gus Van Sant.