D'Works taps 'Ruins' helmer

Smith will direct book adaptation

By DAVE MCNARY

DreamWorks has tapped Carter B. Smith to helm "The Ruins," a horror thriller set in the Yucatan jungles that's being produced by Stuart Cornfeld at Ben Stiller's Red Hour banner.

Project's based on a novel by Scott Smith about four American friends on vacation in Cancún who find themselves lost in the jungle after being persuaded by a German tourist to join his search for his missing brother.

Scott Smith's penning the screenplay adaptation. He also wrote the novel and screenplay for 1998's "A Simple Plan."

Carter Smith's "Bugcrush" tied for the jury prize in short filmmaking last year with Adam Parrish King's "The Wraith of Cobble Hill."