Lily Collins (Les Misérables) has signed on to star in The Cradle, a film adaptation of the 2009 novel by Patrick Somerville, reports Empire.

Collins will portray expectant young mother Marissa Bishop, who actually wasn't expecting get be pregnant at all.  Jack O'Connell (Tulip Fever) will play her husband Matt.

The title has thriller-ish overtones, perhaps because we're reminded of 1992's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. But sharing a key word in the title is where the similarity end. This is no thriller. Instead, it promises to be a drama-packed  journey of discovery.

With the baby on the way, the young couple is rushing to prepare: "Matt is dispatched on a mission to track down the cradle that Marissa slept in as a child, and his quest will see him exploring the life of her impetuous, unpredictable mother Caroline," reads the film's official description. But Marissa is estranged from her mother and has no plans to reconcile with the woman who abandoned her.

Hope Dickson Leach (The Levelling) will direct and Leach co-wrote the script with the original author Somerville.

Filming is predicted to begin this summer.

Meantime, we can look for Collins in the forthcoming biopic Tolkien as Edith Bratt, with Nicholas Hoult in the title role. O'Connell is set to star in Against All Enemies, opposite Kristen Stewart.

Have you read the book? Are you excited that the author is involved with this adaptation?