We were already reeling somewhat from the news back in October that Nic Cage and stunt veteran Vic Armstrong would be working on a new adaptation of the post-Rapture thriller novels in the Left Behind series. The film was apparently not a fever dream or our senses being fooled by an undigested bit of beef, because Chad Michael Murray is in talks to join him.

The Left Behind novels, cooked up by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, became religio-busters for their faith-based tales of humans trying to cope in the post-rapture apocalyptic world. The books, which so far number 16, were adapted into a set of low-budget movies starring Kirk Cameron back in 2001.

Now a company called Family Screen Partners believes the time is ripe to try again, with the star wattage boost of Cage and Armstrong in the director’s chair.

Set to kick off filming in Baton Rouge next spring, Armstrong is planning to make more of a disaster movie than the adventure-based examples that came before, working this time from a script by John Patus. Murray, who got his big break on WB shows such as Gilmore Girls and Dawson’s Creek, graduated to movies with another Christianity-fuelled tale in Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 and will play a journalist named Cameron “Buck” Williams.

Murray is also scheduled to appear in truth-based indie drama Fruitvale and horror sequel The Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia.