"The Last Samurai" helmer Ed Zwick is in negotiations to direct "The Talisman," the pet project from Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy that has been in development for more than 20 years.

The move follows the departure of "House of Sand and Fog" director Vadim Perelman this month from the DreamWorks/Universal Pictures co-production.

Published in 1984, the fantasy novel from Stephen King and Peter Straub follows a 12-year-old boy who sets out on a quest in the real world and a parallel universe, known as the Territories, to find a talisman to save his mother, the queen of the Territories. Ehren Kruger wrote the screenplay.

Spielberg and Kennedy have had the project in development going back to when Kennedy was an executive at Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment banner. The shingle was based at Universal at the time.

Perelman dropped out of the project earlier this month in a mutual parting of ways. He has a remaining three months left on a one-year, first-look deal with the studio. Perelman made his directorial debut for DreamWorks with the Oscar-nominated "House of Sand and Fog."

Zwick is repped by CAA.