| Nope, it's nothing to do with the Virginian metal band. Rather, Lamb of God will mark the directorial debut of Diablo Cody. Cody's new American gospel is a comedy involving a conservative religious woman who loses her faith after a plane crash. She heads for Las Vegas to let her hair down and taste some of the experiences she's missed. But her quest to become a pariah is set to fail and, feeling the absence of the sacred, and not enjoying being a devil in God's country, she makes a spiritual journey back to her roots. That doesn't sound like comedy gold to us, to be honest, but Cody will be unperturbed as she's long since stopped reading her critics. "I've been on a long media fast," she said recently. "As a writer, I'm in a vacuum." Cody, of course, came out of nowhere to rapturous acclaim with her screenplay for Juno in 2007, but stumbled at the second hurdle: Jennifer's Body seemed to confuse audiences by being too horror to be straight-up funny and too funny to be straight-up horror.* Since then she's been busy with TV's The United States of Tara, with rumblings of a Sweet Valley High reboot. Her third produced screenplay, Young Adult, should be out in the autumn, directed by Jason Reitman. Lamb of God will be the third result of her working relationship with Mandate, who are clearly confident that she'll be fine behind the camera. "Having been in the trenches with Diablo before, we jumped at the chance to work with her again," says Mandate honcho Nathan Kahane. "It's an honour to be part of Diablo's transition to director." The project has been fast-tracked, so expect casting announcements sooner rather than later. *Didn't hurt The Lost Boys, but there you go. | 
