Creepy Crawlers

Producer Frank Marshall, longtime Steven Spielberg associate, will make his feature directing debut this fall with “Arachniphobia.”

The title refers to the clinical condition of fearing spiders. According to a source close to the production, Don Jakoby’s script has an American scientist returning from Africa with a rare species of spider that breeds with native varieties, producing a strain that wreaks havoc on the populace of a small, Southwestern town.

“Arachniphobia,” an Interscope Communications production for Disney’s Hollywood Pictures, marks Marshall’s second directing chore at Disney. He previously handled the live action sequence for the current Roger Rabbit short, “Tummy Trouble.”