With Hercules next up on the old docket — and a year of inactivity, to boot — Brett Ratner had to go ahead and leave The 39 Clues for someone else. The next, natural step in this progression of studio-trusted directors would be one Shawn Levy, who Deadline pegs as being in talks to take on the Steven Spielberg-produced kid’s adventure film.

Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can, Tower Heist) adapted the multimedia series — one consisting of websites, trading cards, and a series of books from Rick Riordan — which centers on the Cahills, a powerful family whose two youngest members, Dan and Amy, are bestowed with completing “a globe-trotting treasure hunt.”

Here’s how Amazon describes it:

“When their beloved Aunt Grace dies, Dan, 11, and Amy, 14—along with other Cahill descendants—are faced with an unusual choice: inherit one million dollars or participate in a perilous treasure hunt. Cahills have determined the course of history for centuries, and this quest’s outcome will bring the victors untoward power and affect all of humankind. Against the wishes of nasty Aunt Beatrice, their reluctant guardian since their parents’ deaths, Dan and Amy accept the challenge, convincing their college-age au pair to serve as designated adult. Pitted against other Cahill teams, who will stop at nothing to win, the siblings decipher the first of 39 clues and are soon hot on the historical trail of family member Ben Franklin to unearth the next secret.”

Thanks to this series having both eleven books and a fair number of multimedia products, DreamWorks is hoping to make this one of their next franchises — a series not unlike Levy‘s Night at the Museum, as it were. This, of course, makes him a perfect choice — i.e., as perfect as the guy can actually be — and, any which way you cut it, he’s certainly a preferable choice to Ratner. There’s no hint as to when Levy might get shooting, though; a schedule filled up by The Internship, The Fantastic Voyage, Geppetto, Frankenstein, and a couple of sequels means something will probably have to get cut, so long as this moves forward before long. Most of us can patiently wait, though.

Are you satisfied to see Levy replace Ratner here?