LONDON -- Academy Award winning director Roman Polanski has signed on to direct “Pompeii,” the No.1 bestselling novel by Robert Harris.

It is set to be his biggest undertaking yet with a projected budget of $130 million. Robert Harris is writing the script, and filming will begin in Italy this summer.

Pompeii tells the story of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79 through the eyes of a young engineer, Marcus Attilius, who is sent out to repair the greatest aqueduct in the Roman Empire, which brings water to 250,000 people on the Bay of Naples. Attilius not only has to fight the corrupt forces which control the town of Pompeii, but ultimately the overwhelming power of nature itself.