With the Oscars now over and the writers' strike but a distant memory, Hollywood is finally getting back to business. Which means that all over town producers and producers' assistants are busy ordering books on amazon.com in an attempt to find new material for adaptation. The studios could always commission original scripts, of course. But why bother when a book like Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men can win you four golden statues in one night?

There's one book out there, of course, that's just begging for adaptation. Admittedly, few have read it. And those who have read it almost certainly hated it. It's not exactly what you would call “commercial”, either, given that it weighs in at 17,000 pages and contains anywhere between 1.7 million and 5.5 million words, depending on whom you ask. And yet this book, which has a truly miserable amazon.com ranking of 636,264 (the full version will set you back almost $1,000 and comes in 20 volumes), has changed the life of every grown man and woman in the United States. It is, of course, Title 26 of the US Code of Federal Regulations - commonly known by its somewhat racier sub-title, The Internal Revenue Code.

Now I know what you're thinking: the tax code might be a wee bit on the dry side for a Hollywood blockbuster. I disagree: it has all the ingredients for little-man-takes-on-the-system Best Picture contender. As Mike Huckabee has repeatedly pointed out during his campaign for the Republican nomination - a campaign that has gone for so long that it could now hold its own against the Geological Time Scale - Americans are more afraid of a tax-audit than of being mugged, because at least when you get mugged it's over quickly (although to be fair, your auditor is unlikely to be armed and high on crack).

Indeed, as this year's tax deadline approaches - returns are due on April 15 - there is a more widespread sense of frustration with the Internal Revenue Service than I can ever remember. There are even now a growing number of “tax protesters” who argue that Form 1040 - the basic tax return - violates the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. These people also argue that the Sixteenth Amendment, which created federal income tax in 1913, was never properly ratified.

But who would dare take the lead role in the Hollywood version of Title 26? I have a suggestion: Wesley Snipes. After all, the action star has already taken his own personal stand against the IRS: he refused to file tax returns between 1999 and 2004, in spite of collecting more than $10 million for starring in the Blade trilogy. He's going to be busy for the next three years or so, of course, as that's the time he's probably going to serve in jail. And when he gets out, he might find it hard to schedule a movie between meetings with his accountant.

But I'm sure he'd be happy to take the part. After all, when he's finally paid off all those fines, he's going to need the money.

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