Sydney Pollack circling around <i>Kavalier & Clay</i> (3645)

Variety reports that director Sydney Pollack is close to a deal to direct the film version of Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay at Paramount for out producer Scott Rudin. The gay-inclusive novel tells the story of two pioneer comic book creators in the 1930s and beyond. Paramount has not yet committed to Chabon's script, but Rudin is sure that the project will get a green light.

Chabon, a straight novelist whose books almost always include major gay or bisexual characters, has also just received six figures from Miramax Films, giving the studio first-look rights to Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a book of eight short stories that Chabon hasn't started writing yet. Tales is part of a multimillion-dollar two-book deal Chabon has set up at HarperCollins imprint Fourth Estate.