Deadline is exclusively reporting that Academy Award-winning directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi have been brought onboard to helm the film adaptation of the Michael Crichton and James Patterson novel Eruption.

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Eruption is a big scale disaster novel tale about a once-in-a-century volcanic eruption that is about to destroy the Big Island of Hawaii. But a a decades old military secret could turn the volcano into something even more terrifying. Now it’s up to a handful of brave individuals to save the island – and the entire world.

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Michael Crichton had spent twenty years working on the novel before his untimely death, having done extensive research interviewing volcanologists and geologists. His widow, Sherri Crichton, sought out James Patterson to complete the novel, which has debuted atop of the lists of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple.

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Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi had won the Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards with their film Free Solo, which they followed up on with 2021 documentary The Rescue, and recently directed their first narrative feature Nyad, which earned its stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster Academy Awards nominations in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories.

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The report states that the duo will be at meetings next week in which they’ll pitch the book to studios and financiers with the expectation that a deal will be made once a screenwriter is brought onboard the project.