Star Trek: Picard showrunner and award-winning author Michael Chabon has signed an overall deal with CBS Television Studios, alongside his wife and fellow author Ayelet Waldman. Amid their upcoming slate of projects, the pair will adapt Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2000 novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for a limited series on Showtime, debuting next year.
“The team at CBS Studios is the best we’ve ever worked with,” Waldman and Chabon said in a joint statement Tuesday. “We’re looking forward with so much excitement to this next phase of our collaboration.”
For those who aren’t familiar with the novel, here is the synopsis:
Joe Kavalier, a young Jewish artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit America — the comic book. Drawing on their own fears and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapist, the Monitor, and Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men. With exhilarating style and grace, Michael Chabon tells an unforgettable story about American romance and possibility.
An examination of Judaism, queerness, war, and the birth of comic books in America, Kavalier & Clay was adapted into a screenplay in the early aughts, then adapted five times more, and had a director and even actor Jude Law attached to the project — but it never saw further development.
Now that Chabon and Waldman have signed their production deal with CBS, the book will finally see screen time. The pair will write and executive produce the series alongside Star Trek‘s Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman, with Chabon serving as showrunner.
“Ayelet and Michael are two of America’s preeminent writers,” said CBS Television Studios president David Stapf. “From award-winning novels and nonfiction to their television and film collaborations, they have a remarkable body of work. We’re thrilled to have them on our incredibly talented roster.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s unclear who will take over his duties on Picard when he transitions to the new series in 2020, but for now, he’s sticking around — writing for season two of Picard is already well underway, though the show hasn’t been officially renewed and doesn’t even premiere until January 23.
In addition to Kavalier & Clay, Chabon and Waldman are also working on developing Showtime’s A Really Good Day, Hulu’s Behind You, and The Heavens and Ghost Ship, which are still in early development and have not yet been shopped to networks. The husband and wife duo are also curating an anthology of essays entitled Fight of the Century.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is slated for debut next year. Stay tuned for casting news and more information as the limited series is developed.
There have been plans to film this for almost 20 years. I’ll believe it when I see it.
That’s what I said when I heard the news… and I actually saw some of the R&D for a movie that was going to be directed by Stephen Daldry…. Ben Whishaw and Andrew Garfield had done a few table reads for the leads. (This had to be 2005 or 2006.)
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