German film director Werner Herzog is to adapt the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Vernon God Little, about a teen accused in a high school shooting, for the screen.

DBC Pierre's satirical novel, a controversial winner of the prestigious literary prize in 2003, takes a dark look at the culture of small town America and the feeling of entitlement of the young. The Booker jury hailed the book for its comic wit and vitality, but others criticized its profanity and nastiness.

For Herzog, the new project marks a return to fictional films after two documentaries, the death row portrait Into the Abyss and Cave of Forgotten Dreams, about the Ardeche cave paintings. His last fiction feature was 2009’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done.

The book adaptation also brings the filmmaker back to the setting of Texas, where he spent months examining the impact of the death penalty among convicts on death row for Into the Abyss. In Vernon God Little, Pierre’s protagonist Vernon becomes the scapegoat for a shooting and goes on the run to Mexico, in part because he fears the death penalty.

Variety reports that Andrew Birkin, who wrote and directed The Cement Garden in 1993, will pen a script for the German director, known for films such as Aguirre, The Wrath of God and Woyzeck.

Vernon God Little has also been adapted twice for the stage: once in Glasgow and once at London's Young Vic Theatre in 2007, with British actor Colin Morgan starring as Vernon.