Taika Waititi set to direct film James with Stephen Spielberg executive producing

Taika Waititi is in talks to direct an adaptation of Percival Everett's novel 'James' with Steven Spielberg executive producing. Photo / Bang Showbiz

Taika Waititi is in early talks to direct James.

The 48-year-old filmmaker could be set to helm an adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel that will be executive produced by Steven Spielberg for his Amblin Partners company.

James is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s 1884 novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the perspective of the slave Jim.

The synopsis reads: “When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan.

”Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. Thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.”

Everett’s work has previously been adapted for the big screen after his novel Erasure was made into American Fiction last year – which starred Jeffrey Wright and took home the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Taika directed two movies in the Thor franchise but explained that he had “no interest” in working in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and only ended up doing so to support his family financially.

Speaking on the Smartless podcast, Taika said: “You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films. It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’”