producer scott rudin, who had worked with chabon in the early nineties on "the gentlemen host", a screenplay that as of 2013 remains unfilmed, bought the screen rights to "the amazing adventures of kavalier & clay" for paramount pictures based on a one-and-a-half page pitch before the novel had been published. (rudin was involved with the novel so early on that his name appears in the acknowledgements to its first edition.) after the book was published, rudin hired chabon to write the screen adaptation. in july 2002, it was reported that the process had taken 16 months and six drafts, none of which pleased the demanding rudin. "it's like those arcade games where a gopher head pops out", chabon said at the time. "i fix this and then another head pops out." rudin explained that his problems with the drafts often derived from scenes in the book he wanted kept in the film and which chabon, "incredibly unprecious about his work", had cut.