Working Title Films and Peapie Films have acquired Andy Mulligan’s novel Trash as a directing vehicle for Stephen Daldry (The Reader).  Richard Curtis (Love Actually) will adapt the novel, which is “a contemporary thriller set in the third world, about three boys who scrape a living picking through rubbish mounds. One day they discover a leather bag, whose contents plunge them into a terrifying adventure, pitting their wits against corruption and authority to put right a terrible wrong.”  Variety reports that the project is being developed with an eye towards shooting in 2012.

Daldry is currently at work adapting Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock.  Curtis recently worked on the screenplay for Stephen Spielberg’s upcoming drama War Horse.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of Andy Mulligan’s Trash.