I bought a new graphics card on Friday and it isn't getting on well with my PC — scary blue-screen freezes ahoy, and it's impossible to get the PC out of standby without restarting. Simultaneously, after the first long stretch of near-zero news at BCK, finally we get some real meat and of course I gotta update about it with said PC. At one a.m., I might add. This is God playing cruel jokes on me.

ANYWAY. What you really want to hear is this:

…according to Production Weekly, Kaufman will make his directorial debut with a film called Synecdoche. Not only that, but he managed to snag Philip Seymour Hoffman for the lead role, as well as Michelle Williams.

As far as plot goes, pic will center on an “anguished playwright and several women in his life.” Now, it's not mentioned whether Kaufman also wrote the screenplay, but I assume he did. Regardless, I'm just pumped to see Kaufman directing and can't wait to see what this thing looks like. Filming it set to begin early next summer. (Cinematical)

Apparently TMZ.com broke the story. Who are we to doubt the site which sent Hollywood into a hypocritical frenzy when they publicized Mad Max's drunken rant, eh?

…according to dictionary.com, a 'synecdoche' is a conceptual metaphor wherein “a part is used for the whole” (as ‘hand' for 'sailor').

Or “when the whole is used for a part” (as ‘the law' for ‘police officer'). Or “when the specific is used for the general” ('cutthroat' for ‘assassin'). Or “when the general is used for the specific” ('thief' for ‘pickpocket'). Or - stay with me now - “when the material is used for the thing made from it” (as with ‘lead' for ‘bullets').

Apparently, Kaufman's script […] was ordered up by Columbia Pictures chairman Amy Pascal. But it proved a tad on the complicated side - as most Kaufman scripts are. (Anyone able to tell me what the last third of Kaufman's “Being John Malkovich” was about?) And so, the studio gave it back to Kaufman in turnaround.

That's where Sidney Kimmel came in. Kimmel, the clothier who owns Jones New York apparel label among others, also has a film financing company that bears his name. TMZ has learned that Kimmel's company is negotiating to finance “Synecdoche” outright, and that Sony has a right of first refusal to distribute the finished picture. If Sony doesn't want it, Kimmel also has an output arrangement with MGM Pictures, which is another option to get it into theaters.

It's too early to tell if Sony will want to pick it up, but we're certainly intrigued: Phillip Seymour Hoffman starring in a Charlie Kaufman screenplay, directed by Kaufman? If anyone can make sense of a Kaufman script, it should be Kaufman.

It's worth noting that Columbia were the studio behind Adaptation, so they're not averse to Kaufman's weirdness. Wonder what it was that made them pass on this one, eh?

Mike Sampson from JoBlo.com reports the same thing, and also says “BTW, whatever happened to Kaufman's supposed horror project with Spike Jonze?…” I'd say it's the same script, since we know that was being written for Sony. Maybe, during the writing process, it became less of a horror flick. Or it's still a horror flick. Or I'm totally wrong.

Intern J dropped me a note:

Another fellow intern mentioned the script
to me a week ago, though he said it was called “Synecdoche NY” rather
than just “Synecdoche,” which is what other sites are listing it as.
And his very nebulous plot description matches what I've seen on
these websites. It's definitely a thematic cousin to Being John
Malkovich, in that the actors in the writer's play begin to inhabit
the traits of his characters, the distinguishing line between “actor”
and “character” become almost indecipherable, and some of the other
details I vaguely remember show another self-reflexive work related
to art imitating life and life imitating art. The part representing
the whole and the whole representing the part. Hence, the title. I
think I remember hearing something about the playwright being
suicidal as well. Could be wrong.

Either way, while the plot specifics are beyond me, trust me that
this news story is legit.

If that's the bare-bones plot, sounds cool to me. How about you guys? Big thanks to J for that scoop, if it pans out.

Production Weekly reports that the film will begin shooting next summer.

Hoffman participated in the Coens' half of “Theater of the New Ear.” Wonder if that's how he ended up with the gig in this flick. Tram points out that Michelle Williams may have been introduced to Charlie by Spike, since she's in his Where the Wild Things Are.

So here's where I start begging people to float me a copy of the screenplay. *bats lashes*

Thanks to Tram (who says “Take that, George Clooney” on her blog… hahaha), Dani (an old friend of BCK, whose short films you should go download and watch), “A. AAA”, Eric, David, Intern J, Jake, Justin, Michael, and possibly one or two people I've forgotten.