Showtime is getting a subversive comic book epic of its very own, as Variety reports that the network has landed a series adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay. Chabon and his producing partner (and fellow author) Ayelet Waldman will serve as executive producers and showrunners for the series, which follows the lives of two Jewish cousins—an artist and a writer—who seize on America’s obsession with superheroes during World War II and become wildly successful in the comic book industry. Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman will also serve as executive producers on the sprawling adaptation.
The Kavalier & Clay series is part of Chabon and Waldman’s new multi-year production deal with CBS TV Studios. That deal includes a few other notable titles, like Ghost Ship, based on the tragic story of the fire that consumed an artists’ collective in Oakland, California (covered beautifully by The New York Times Magazine), and an adaptation of Jacqueline Woodson’s Behind You for Hulu. Chabon and Waldman have also set up a series adaptation of the latter’s A Really Good Day for Showtime, starring Veep’s Anna Chlumsky.
Chabon is currently overseeing the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Picard as executive producer, and will stay with the series until Kavalier & Clay begins production in 2020.