A simple question -
Was Charlie Kaufman actually tasked with adapting Susan Orlean’s book ‘The Orchid Thief’, or was the film ‘Adaptation’ a crazy idea consented to by a willing author?
The story goes that he was having such a hard time adapting the novel that he wrote a screenplay about having a hard time adapting the novel. In Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe acceptance speech she thanked the book’s author, Susan Orlean, for being such a good sport.
Haj
Short answer: Yes.
Charlie Kaufman was hired to turn Susan Orlean’s article on John Laroche into a screenplay, and found himself unable to do it. He then pulled a trick which I’ve previously only seen done by sixth-graders in creative-writing classes, which is to make the story about the author who can’t write a story.
Which isn’t to say that Adaptation is a bad film… it’s strange nature makes it impossible to really critique. I mean, the plot really does fly off the hinges in the third act, but is that bad filmmaking or intentionally bad filmmaking (i.e. is this the part where “Donald” Kaufman takes over the script?)
Interesting aside: Another of Susan Orlean’s articles for the New Yorker, on female competitive surfers, was loosely adapted into the film Blue Crush.
I always thought it was supposed to convey Charlie giving up and adding those “elements” to the plot, I hadn’t considered that it was supposed to be Donald taking over. I like the Donald idea, I think that maybe that’s what we were supposed to believe.
Well, after all, the script is credited to both Charlie & Donald…
Not only is this the conclusion I immediately came to upon seeing the movie, but it would be hard to argue against the idea, there’s too much supporting it (like Donald’s script as an example of his “style,” the fact the script was credited to both Charlie and Donald, and most importantly, how the movie changes so dramatically only after Charlie brings Donald on for “advice”).
Another Adaptation trivia question- is there any relationship between Donald Kaufman’s script idea and the film Identity?
Oddly enough, Kaufman’s script manages to convey quite a sense of the book. Whether it’s an accurate representation of the author’s experience, I don’t know, but there was definitely themes aside from Kaufman’s neurosis being put forth.
I can partially answer the question on ‘Identity’.
Identity was apparently penned some three months before Adaptation, but John Cussack (of Being John Malokovitch) was in it, suggesting that he might have leaked the plot to friend Kaufman.
This would act as a clever reference to Donald’s ridiculous plot for ‘The 3’ Anyone interested in more information on this theory should check out IMDB.com
Orleans injected herself into The Orchid Thief, so why shouldn’t the writer who adapted the book inject himself into the movie version?