For all the news and drama surrounding film adaptations of Michael Chabon’s Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Kavalier & Clay, it’s easy sometimes to forget that Ayelet Waldman could have a movie of her own hitting theaters.

Waldman’s Love and Other Impossible Pursuits was optioned by Walt Disney before it even hit bookstores. This site hasn’t reported much on it, but it’s been in the works and drawing in talent.

Don Roos, the writer and director of The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings, is writing and possibly directing the film adaptation. Waldman confirmed that Jennifer Lopez has been cast as the main actress.

“Yup, Jlo is in, and we’ve got preliminary financing!” Waldman said via e-mail.

Lopez is prepping for the part, according to Harper’s Bazaar.

“I’m very excited,” Lopez told Entertainment Weekly in September. “[Roos]’s fantastic. When he knew I was coming [to Toronto], he actually e-mailed me. He goes, ‘How are you doing? Are you nervous?’ I was like, ‘Yeah!’ He saw the film [El Cantante] because before we decided to work together I wanted him to see it. And he was like, ‘It’s the best female performance in five years — don’t worry about it!’ I was like, ‘I love you!’ [Laughs]”

In an interview with Zulkey last year, Waldman called Roos’ screenplay “awesome.” “It’s so good – he took lots of my jokes and made them funnier,” she said. “I loved it.”

NPR’s Studio 360 broadcasted a fascinating radio piece about Superman and what he symbolizes Sunday. Among the many experts speaking in the show is Michael Chabon.

“I mean, you look and you pick up comic books of the 1940’s, and it’s very easy to see what’s on peoples’ minds, what’s going on,” Chabon says. “It’s the war.”

He also says Superman’s logo is a reference to the Nazi swastika. “It’s all right there. Big swastikas everywhere. And so, yeah, the swastika is a kind of Superman “S” or a Batman bat. It’s sort of the mark, the imprint that strength makes on weaker material.”

He continues: “Fascism is inherently appealing to people who have no power and are weak, and so is Superman. I mean, Superman was created by a couple of guys who had no power and were weak and wished they were strong and could do more than they could with their bodies. I mean, fascism is all about bodies and strength and power and the imposition of will. That’s what Superman is all about.”

The narrator notes that the name “Superman” comes from the writings of Friedrich Nietzche, a favorite writer of Adolf Hitler.

But he’s also a reference to the New Deal thinking of the time, Chabon says.

“Superman was initially conceived very much as a champion of the meak and the oppressed against the powerful and strong. Somebody who was going to intercede on the side of the little guy against the big bosses,” he says.