Imran Jaffery

Excuse me while I mop up my brains because my head just went kaboom. Jason Gray of Screen Daily broke word today that Franco-Vietnamese auteur Anh Hung Tran will adapt world-renowned Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood for the big screen.

With superhero movies making serious bank this summer, it’s no surprise that studios are snatching up comic book properties left and right. When a second-tier superhero like Iron Man can ring up $300 million in domestic receipts alone you knew a gold rush was going to be on. How else can you explain the possibility of Spiderman doppelganger/nemesis Venom possibly getting its own film?

The movie Gods must be strict creationists. That would explain why the heady sci-fi works of Isaac Asimov have not translated well to the big screen. Sure his writing tends more towards grand ideas than epic scope, but there’s no excusing bastardizations like Bicentennial Man and I, Robot. Yet Hollywood continues trying to crack Asimov’s dystopian worlds. Next up? Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne will attempt an adaptation of perhaps his most non-cinematic work the Foundation trilogy.

Aronofsky has been trying to snare a big genre property for years, flirting with the Batman franchise, Lone Wolf and Cub, and most recently Watchmen among others. The project’s $100 million budget is far and away the most money the director has had to play with; it will be exciting to see what he’ll do with it. While the producers intend to make a film that mirrors the original in tone and feel; I expect it to be very gritty, with more practical effects and less camp comedy ala The Dark Knight – which made a little bit of money this summer if I recall.

For those of you who have been enjoying HBO’s enthralling Iraq War miniseries Generation Kill, this will be welcome news. Evan Wright, who penned the book on which the series is based, has been brought on to adapt Billy Corben’s 2006 doc Cocaine Cowboys for Paramount.