Taglines: Charlie Kaufman writes the way he lives… With great difficulty.
While his latest movie Being John Malkovich (1999) is in production, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is hired by Valerie Thomas to adapt Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book “The Orchid Thief” for the screen. Thomas bought the movie rights before Orlean wrote the book, when it was only an article in The New Yorker.
The book details the story of rare orchid hunter John Laroche, whose passion for orchids and horticulture made Orlean discover passion and beauty for the first time in her life. Charlie wants to be faithful to the book in his adaptation, but despite Laroche himself being an interesting character in his own right, Charlie is having difficulty finding enough material in Laroche to fill a movie, while equally not having enough to say cinematically about the beauty of orchids.
At the same time, Charlie is going through other issues in his life. His insecurity as a person doesn’t allow him to act upon his feelings for Amelia Kavan, who is interested in him as a man. And Charlie’s twin brother, pretentious Donald, has moved into his house with a goal of also becoming a screenwriter.
Despite not admiring Donald as a screenwriter, Charlie asks for his advice. Together, they feel that there is some interesting subtext in the book on which Orlean herself can only elaborate, if only Charlie has the nerve to talk to her. If she can’t or won’t elaborate, they may have to find out the meaning of that subtext on their own.
Adaptation (stylized as Adaptation.) is a 2002 American comedy-drama metafilm directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman. The film is based on Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, with numerous self-referential events added. The film stars Nicolas Cage as Charlie and Donald Kaufman, and Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean, Chris Cooper as John Laroche, with Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Ron Livingston, and Maggie Gyllenhaal in supporting roles.
Adaptation had been in development as far back as 1994. Jonathan Demme brought the project to Columbia Pictures with Kaufman writing the script. Kaufman experienced writer’s block and did not know what to think of The Orchid Thief. Finally he wrote a script based on his experience of adapting the book into a screenplay. Jonze signed to direct, and filming was finished in June 2001.
Though the film is billed as an adaptation of The Orchid Thief, its primary narrative focus is Charlie Kaufman’s struggle to adapt The Orchid Thief into a film, while dramatizing the events of the book in parallel. Adaptation also adds a number of fictitious elements, including Kaufman’s twin brother (also credited as a writer for the film) and a romance between Orlean and Laroche, and culminates in completely invented events including fictional versions of Orlean and Laroche three years after the events related in The Orchid Thief, Kaufman and his fictional twin brother.
Adaptation received awards at the 75th Academy Awards, 60th Golden Globe Awards and 56th British Academy Film Awards. Cooper won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, while Kaufman won the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The work was ranked in a British Film Institute poll as one of the thirty best films of the 2000s.
Adaptation (2002)
Directed by: Spike Jonze
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Cara Seymour, Chris Cooper, Gary Farmer, Gregory Itzin, Stephen Tobolowsky, Curtis Hanson
Screenplay by: Charlie Kaufman, Susan Orlean
Production Design by: K.K. Barrett
Cinematography by: Lance Acord
Film Editing: Eric Zumbrunnen.
Costume Design by: Ann Roth, Casey Storm
Art Direction by: Peter Andrus
Makeup Department: Lynn Barber, Jerry Constantine, Joseph Coscia
Music by: Lou Barlow
MPAA Rating: R for language, sexuality, some drug use and violent images.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: December 6, 2002
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