July 9, 2013 - 18:41 AMT
“Being John Malkovich” scribe to pen “Slaughterhouse-Five” adaptation

Charlie Kaufman will write the new Slaughterhouse-Five adaptation. Director Guillermo del Toro has revealed that the Being John Malkovich screenwriter will be joining him on the movie, Digital Spy said.

"Charlie and I talked for about an hour and a half and came up with a perfect way of doing the book," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"I love the idea of the Trafalmadorians [the aliens of Slaughterhouse-Five] to be 'unstuck in time,' where everything is happening at the same time. And that's what I want to do.

"It's just a catch-22. The studio will make it when it's my next movie, but how can I commit to it being my next movie until there's a screenplay? Charlie Kaufman is a very expensive writer."

Kurt Vonnegut's seminal sci-fi novel centres around alien abduction and the firebombing of Dresden in World War II.

Kaufman is best known as the writer of Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation.

Del Toro is also planning an adaptation of HP Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

His latest film, Pacific Rim, will arrive on July 12.