in november of that same year, though, director stephen daldry announced in "the new york times" that he planned to direct the film "next year." in january 2005, chabon posted on his web site that, "about a month ago, there was a very brief buzzing, as of a fruit fly, around the film version of "the amazing adventures of kavalier & clay". it was a casting-buzz. it went like this: tobey maguire as sam clay. jamie bell as joe kavalier. natalie portman as rosa saks. it buzzed very seriously for about eleven minutes. then it went away." actors andrew garfield, ryan gosling, ben whishaw and jason schwartzman were also considered for parts in the project with wishaw and garfield doing scenes for a screen test titled the window, shabbos dinner, the return, the story of the golem, war is over. .