Do you think Michael Chabon's 'Kavalier and Clay' can be made into a good movie?

Question

It's such a wonderful book, it would be a shame to ruin it...

Answer 1

There could certainly be an exciting movie made based on Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. But fitting it into 90 to 120 minutes would require leaving out a lot of the specific events in the novel.

I imagine a film based on the exploits of the Escapist, with occasional brief glimpses into the lives of Kavalier and Clay. I can imagine this being an animated feature with top quality animation, or featuring human actors -- maybe a cool combination of both. But I can't imagine the movie ever telling all of the stories featured in the novel.

Film length is often an issue. David Brin's The Postman was another long genre novel I enjoyed. It was made into a film by Kevin Costner, who both starred in it and directed it (sometimes this is a mistake - you decide). Costner tried to tell the whole story, refusing to cut the script to time. Although I like the movie, even I feel it's too long. It was expensive to make. It was not a hit in theatrical release. It later found an audience as a broadcast mini-series.

Perhaps Kavalier and Clay could be a mini-series, but again this genre is only occasionally successful when it comes to adapting novels.