Paul Feig is to direct 'The School For Good and Evil'.

The 57-year-old filmmaker will helm the adaption of Soman Chainani's fantasy novel for Netflix.

The story was published in 2013 and was the first in a six-book series. It follows best friends Sophie and Agatha at The School for Good and Evil, where normal children are trained to be heroes and villains.

Sophie expects to be chosen for the School for Good whilst Agatha believes she is evil, although their friendship is put to the test when the roles are reversed.

Paul, whose previous credits include 'Last Christmas' and 'Bridesmaids', is to direct from a script penned by David Magee and Laura Solon.

He said: ''I'm truly excited to bring this amazing, touching, funny and empowering world that Soman created in his wonderful books to life.

''I feel like a frog that just turned into a prince.''

Soman added: ''To have one of your favourite directors adapt your book into a film for Netflix is an honour and a dream.

''Paul Feig is a brilliant filmmaker and a master of tone - a perfect fit for the twists and turns of 'The School for Good and Evil'. I have no doubt that he will make a true fairy tale classic.''

Feig helmed the all-female 'Ghostbusters' flop in 2016 and recently blamed the movie's lack of success on the backlash against US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Speaking to SiriusXM, he said: ''I think some really brilliant author ... needs to write a book about 2016 and how intertwined we were with Hillary [Clinton] and the anti-Hillary movement. Everyone was at a boiling point. I don't know if it was having an African American president for eight years that they were teed up, they were just ready to explode.

''It's crazy how people got nuts about women trying to be empowered or be in positions they weren't normally in, and it was an ugly, ugly year.''