(This article originally appeared in the SF Weekly)
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – In an announcement that shook the publishing world, Disney executives today confirmed that Harper Lee’s new novel Go Set a Watchman will be adapted as a Marvel Comics movie by 2018.
According to unconfirmed reports, Jennifer Lawrence will star as Scout, a New York City girl from a small Southern town whose life changes forever after she is exposed to cosmic rays. Kevin Spacey will play her father, the mighty space lawyer Atticus Finch, and Billy Bob Thornton will play immortal mob boss Boo Radley.
Samuel L. Jackson and Faye Dunaway are confirmed to return as Col. Nick Fury and the morphine-addled Mrs. Dubose, respectively. Joss Whedon will direct.
“We all know that the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Gregory Peck, endures as a timeless American classic,” said Disney spokesman Peter Haberman. “We intend to treat Go Set a Watchman with the same reverence, whether it’s our portrayal of Scout’s difficult relationship with Atticus, a careful examination of America’s racial politics, or the ravenous hunger of Galactus, Devourer of Worlds.”
Haberman refused to confirm reports that the movie will be a scathing indictment of American society, or that Scout’s boyfriend Henry Clinton possesses an Infinity Gem.
But Buzzfeed, citing an off the record source, is reporting that Scout’s disillusionment with her family’s inability to express compassion for persecuted minorities seeking a piece of the American Dream will lead her to join The Avengers in 2020 and save the world from Mole Man.
Other Marvel Cinematic Universe titles recently announced include I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, starring Kerry Washington as a telepathic Maya Angelou; Catcher in the Rye, starring Chow Yun-Fat as Shaolin Master Holden Caulfield; and Robert Caro’s four volume biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, focusing on our 36th president’s tragic decision to go to war with Namor the Sub-Mariner, Prince of Atlantis.