Abrams Wants "Great World"

According to The Hollywood Reporter, JJ Abrams is attempting to secure the rights to "Let the Great World Spin" for his production company Bad Robot. Great World is National Book Award winning novel by Colum McCann about Philippe Petit and his tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers in August 1974.

The book's characters include a young Irish monk living among prostitutes in the Bronx; a group of mothers mourning their sons, killed in Vietnam, in a Park Avenue apartment; and a 38-year-old grandmother walking the streets with her teenage daughter. With comparisons to Don DeLillo's work, McCann's novel serves as an allegory of 9/11 and its aftermath.

"Spin" joins a handful of other projects Abrams has in the works as a producer that spring from literary source material and do not feed his typical genre obsessions. Also at Bad Robot and Paramount are an untitled diamond-heist project derived from a Joshua Davis article in Wired and "Mystery on Fifth Avenue," from a New York Times article about a family's Manhattan apartment that was designed as a giant puzzle.

JJ Abrams' Shelter Script

Script Shadow blog has posted a synopsis and link to an early script from JJ Abrams that kinds of gives you some insight into the evolution of his writing. This script was sold back in 1994 back when Abrams was still writing heavily rather than being the "idea guy" and handing off the writing chores to others.

The script, called Shelter, takes place in New York in 2047. It follows a high-tech thief Jack Muller and his squad as they break into an apartment to get a fluid that allows those with the means to live longer. Hijinks ensue as things fall apart.

Apparently the script is a mess but it shows even those with the reputation of Abrams has to start somewhere and learn through hard won experience and practice.

Click here to read the details and the script.

Abrams One of the Entertainers of the Decade

As part of a look back of the last decade in entertainment, Entertainment Weekly chose what they called "Entertainers of the Decade". JJ Abrams was one of fifteen chosen for the list due to his prolific decade of work including Alias, Lost, Mission Impossible III, Cloverfield, Star Trek, Fringe and more. Other members of EW's list include Johnny Depp, Beyonce, JK Rowling, Peter Jackson, John Lasseter, Will Smith, Jon Stewart and more. The complete list can be found here.

Putting his stamp on the century's first decade with defining entertainment like Alias, Lost, and Star Trek, Abrams, 43, has become a Hollywood power player with ''next Spielberg'' buzz thanks to an uncanny knack for blending capture-the-imagination ideas, emotionally riveting drama, and relatable, memorable characters. Not bad for someone who admits, as he approached the close of the '90s, ''I felt I had lost my way as a writer.'' Ten years later? ''I feel happily lost right now.'' —Jeff Jensen