Both recently losing their respective jobs making good things, Charlie Kaufman and Community creator Dan Harmon are now combining convoluted, self-aware narrative forces to make something else that sounds pretty good. So pay them to do that right now.
I'm sorry, but we may never get to see Kevin Kline belt out a tune as an animatronic, disembodied, screenwriting head.
As if HBO didn't have enough shit you should definitely be watching, now there will be another thing.
If we didn't care about Lionsgate's Chaos Walking adaptation before, now we're going to have to start, because Charlie Kafuman is adapting the first book in the young-adult series.
Having proven his dual-role ability on the sets of Fierce Creatures, Wild Wild West, and Dave, Kevin Kline will once again have a couple characters' lines to remember on Charlie Kaufman's sophomore directorial effort, Frank or Francis--a film said to be a meta, musical satire of the Hollywood industry that largely focuses on the back and forth between a director and a blogger. Kline will fill the part of the director's brother, while also--in a more bizarrely Kaufman-esque role--playing an "animatronic disembodied screenwriting head." Why not?
Jack Black is attached to play Francis, the blogger, while Steve Carell is in talks to play the director he's at odds with, Frank. Nicolas Cage, himself no stranger to multiple roles in Charlie Kaufman movies, will also appear in an unspecified part. Because what's a modern Hollywood satire without Nicolas Cage, our greatest living Hollywood satire?
- Sir Ridley Scott says: "I'll never work without 3-D again," This is just like when Dad got so excited about emails the week after he bought that Compaq.
- Steven Spielberg says Jurassic Park IV will happen in the next two or three years, Michael Crichton's angry spirit notwithstanding.
- Robert Rodriguez says Frank Miller has finished the Sin City 2 script, and the film could go into production as early as this year. Presumably, the sequel will at last reveal what Marv smells like.
- In this statement, Relativity Media assures everyone that those old plans to make a live-action Voltron movie still stand. Phew!
- Charlie Kaufman's sophomore directorial effort, Frank or Francis, has Nicolas Cage, Steve Carell, and Jack Black lined up to star, giving them all something to be proud of before they go back to CGI animal voices and hairpieces.
If you were Joaquin Phoenix's agent a couple years ago, back around the time he was getting publicly pooed on, I imagine you must have at some point said something like, "Joaquin, please don't get pooed on nor pretend to be an insane person just to make an inane fake documentary." And while I can see where you were coming from with this presumed advice--getting literally shit on is clearly an unorthodox career strategy--but it turns out you couldn't have been more wrong. This guy's rehabilitation since being fake crazy is going great! Phoenix is currently shooting a lead role in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, and now he's rumored to have another job on a sure-to-be-pretty-good project. According to Twitch, Phoenix now is attached to a starring role in Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, but you knew that) latest collaboration, a political satire described as "a satire about how world leaders gather to figure out all the seismic events that will take place in the worlds, from oil prices to wars that will be waged." The Anderson and Jonez films are certainly two of the most highly-anticipated films around these parts, so for Phoenix to get leads in both is quite a feat considering all the fake-crazy, shit-on stuff. The inspiring lesson: don't ever let anyone tell you coprophilia and a successful acting career are mutually exclusive. You can have it all, thespian fetishists.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's super-rich daughter, Megan, is continuing to redeem herself for being the young heir to more money than I can fathom by paying for obviously-good-sounding films. The 25-year-old billionairess--who's put up funding for the Coens' True Grit, two future Paul Thomas Anderson features, and several other films that clearly sound promising--is now negotiating to acquire the rights to the new film Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman have been pitching. According to Deadline, the project is "a satire about how world leaders gather to figure out all the seismic events that will take place in the worlds, from oil prices to wars that will be waged," and considering it's from the team that made Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, I'm wagering the satire will blend absurdity and naturalism into something that will be both entertaining and thought provoking. And if it isn't, oh well, she has enough to waste a few million bones here and there.
Also on the Kaufman plate: Frank or Francis, a film he hopes to make his first directorial effort since the amazing Synecdoche, New York. The story concerns a rivalry between a director and a critical blogger, perhaps that I may take from this the lesson that even the lowly blogger's words can hurt. Do they, Michael Bay?
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Synecdoche, New York opens today in New York and LA! I will be seeing this thing so hard this weekend, but if you don't live in such a location of Charlie Kaufman-privilege, here is some consolation: nine new clips from Twitch Film. It's not quite the same as seeing it tomorrow, but at least this way you're guaranteed not to hear me whispering across the aisle, whining how I don't know what's going on.
I couldn't tell you exactly what's going on in this trailer to Synecdoche, New York, but the film is written and directed by Charlie Kaufman and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, so I'm sure it's as great as it seems.
Earlier today, my friend Kevin sent me these mp3s of Wired's entire two-and-a-half hour interview with Charlie Kaufman, and I can't stop listening to them. The notoriously reclusive writer discusses taking on the director's role with Synecdoche, New York, working with Spike Jonze, his career, neuroscience, and more, all spoken in the endearingly neurotic, timorous style you'd expect. Well done, Wired. How about you keep doing interviews like this and I'll keep pretending they're relevant to a technology magazine.
I think this poster only works if you're familiar with the plot, how Hoffman's character is planning and constructing a replica of New York within a warehouse. Or if you're that guy from my old work who would always chuckle that he was "a bit of a Post-It junky," in which case you'll probably look at it and say, "Have you seen my desk? That is so me."
Poster for Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York [Ion Cinema]
Yes, technically this is just Catherine Keener and Philip Seymour Hoffman standing in a dingy artist's studio. But it's also a scene in Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind writer Charlie Kaufman's first directorial effort, Synecdoche, New York--only the second shot since this one--so I'm somewhat justified in my genuine excitement. In what way will the above conversation use a mix of quirky surrealism, deadpan humor, and heart-wrenching drama to broaden my understanding of the tragedy of human existence? I don't know, but I'm certain it will.
Cannes Watch: Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York [Thompson on Hollywood]
There are few films I'm anticipating more than Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche New York, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as a playwright attempting to create a life-size replicate of New York for one of his works. In less capable hands it could turn into a quirky Field of Dreams, but Kaufman's writing resumé (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind) has shown his rare talent at grounding the absurd in reality, a skill that will likely carry through into his direction, and with PSH in the lead, I mean, come on. It has to be good.
IonCinema agrees with my enthusiasm, and has posted the above first shot from the film. I have no idea what is being examined, but it will probably end up being clever enough to earn a Best Screenplay nomination.
Synecdoche New York Image [Ion Cinema]
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I Watch Stuff is a movie and video blog dedicated to bringing you the best and worst that Hollywood and the Internet have to offer and then, more often than not, making fun of it because it sucks.
