Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer prize winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the stellar The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and the book I am reading as we speak, Gentlemen of the Road, has been signed on to write/re-write “John Carter of Mars”.

What is John Carter doing on Mars you ask? Well….

The film is based on the first serial to feature John Carter, 1912’s A Princess of Mars. Carter is an American Civil War veteran who is transported to Mars, here called Barsoom. Formerly an Earthlike world, it has became less hospitable to life due to its advanced age: as the oceans evaporated, and the atmosphere thinned, the planet devolved into partial barbarism with the inhabitants hardened and warlike, fighting one another to survive. Barsoomians distribute scarce water supplies via a worldwide system of canals, controlled by quarreling city-states. The Martian atmosphere is maintained by a power plant. Carter rescues a humanoid Martian princess Dejah Thoris from the belligerent four-armed Green Martians, whose respect he gains for his superior strength and fighting ability. He enlists the Green Martians’ assistance in winning a civil war, and saves Mars from destruction when its atmosphere plant malfunctions.

Of course, Mr. Chabon has a very good screenplay track record, having written Spiderman 2, the best of that web slinging series by far. Thanks Slashfilm.