Apr 16 2009 Chabon Toolin' Around on 'John Carter of Mars'

I have only a dim impression that John Carter of Mars is some kind of space Conan (note: this vague perception is formed almost entirely from the above image), but I am beginning to care more and more about this upcoming film adaptation as I learn more about it. Look who's just joined the crew: someone respectable! From The Amazing Website of Kavalier and Clay:

In yesterday’s item by Deadline Hollywood Daily about Michael Chabon switching agents, it mentioned that he was attached to write a script for Disney’s John Carter of Mars. Having never heard that before, I checked in with Chabon to see if it was accurate. The answer is yes.

“I’ve been hired to do some revisions to an already strong script by Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews,” Chabon said. “I wrote my original screenplay The Martian Agent back in 1995 because I wished I could do [Edgar Rice] Burroughs’s Barsoom. So this is pretty much a dream come true for me.”

Disney got the option rights to Burrough’s 11-volume series in 2007 after the rights lapsed at Paramount Pictures. Andrew Stanton, the writer and director of Finding Nemo and WALL-E, is set to direct. It’s expected to hit theaters in 2012.

Michael Chabon and WALL-E director Andrew Stanton: the most promising popular author/director collaboration since it was announced Dave Eggers was working with Spike Jonze on Where the Wild Things Are? Yes, clearly. I don't even know what the other choices would be.

(via AICN)

Apr 11 2008 Read Michael Chabon's 'The Amazing Adventures of Peter Parker'

In a divergence from their more-standard "If _____ wrote _____" pieces examining the wackiness of if someone wrote something they didn't, McSweeney's has posted "If Michael Chabon wrote the Spider-Man 2 Script", which is a divergence because he actually did write a complete draft (and received a shared story credit). So download the screenplay, and decide for yourself whether it was a good idea to pass on the majority of a Pulitzer Prize-winner's draft in favor of a 73-year-old guy's revision. Seems like a sound idea, but perhaps not?

A Proposed Screenplay for Spider-Man 2 [McSweeney's]