Before you start wondering: no, Robert Zemeckis is not mad as hell about the relative success of Gnomeo & Juliet compared to his latest produced CG animation, Mars Needs Moms. And no, he isn’t looking to run through gardens with a baseball bat smashing the beardy ornaments. He’s simply attached to produce an adaptation of How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack.

Sony Pictures Animation is ironing out the details on a deal to option Chuck Sambuchino’s book, which purports to prepare us for the apparently imminent destruction plotted by the seemingly harmless stone statues. Yes, far from simply being questionably aesthetic decorations for a lawn, round a pond or on a path, these smiling terrorists are set to spring to life, invade your home and wreck the place. Sambuchino, naturally, has discovered a foolproof plan to fight back.

Zemeckis’ Imagemovers company is looking to partner with Sony on the film and, like Mars, it’s likely he’ll stick to simply producing instead of sitting in the director’s chair.

But while there’s no actual director or even a writer attached yet, the comparisons to Gnomeo may be unavoidable. There’s also a sprinkling of Toy Story in there (seemingly inanimate objects coming to life) and more than a little Spiderwick Chronicles (finding a way to combat troublesome creatures). Let's hope it ends up as good as those.