This July, principal photography will start on a modern adaptation of Kafka’ Metamorphosis, the most famous name attached being Nick Searcy (TV’s Justified). Here’s a promo.

In this version, Greg is a teenager in the suburbs, with a decidedly cockroachian transformation (which, if you’re a Kafka nut, is somewhere between acceptable and blasphemous, depending on your interpretation of the word ungeziefer).

Knee jerk reaction, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of justification for this to happen. Director David Yohe and producer/writer Jason Goldberg are definitely enthusiastic about the project in the video, but something about this whole thing conjures up images of a sweaty guy in a rubber bug suit. And lots of blood (“Our take is a fresh modern horror version,” says Yohe). Maybe it’s the snazzy production quality that’s missing from the video and website. This is definitely a low budget production, which would probably be less worrisome if the story being adapted didn’t hinge on creature effects.

But far be it from snarky bloggers to put down what is clearly a project borne out of a love for the source material. Here’s hoping they can pull together enough funding to create a believable bug, which is likely what’ll make or break the movie. Hopefully it’ll be a better adaptation than Outer Dark.

And even if it’s not, thinking of gross bug movies has brought to mind Society, the cheesy 80s masterpiece starring Billy Warlock! Watch the incredible trailer here!