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I Give It: 
(film),
(script - first draft)
Release Date: 29 October, 1999
| Official Sites: | www.beingjohnmalkovich.com |
| www.carterburwell.com |
Articles/Interviews: 
Gray Marshall & Margaux Mackay Interview - Film & Video Magazine
Who's a Puppet? - Metaphilm
Happiness Is a Warm Portal - Metaphilm
A Q&A With the Stars of Being John Malkovich - Yahoo! Movies
'Being' There - New York Post
Writing Being John Malkovich - Scenario
John Malkovich ponders the role of his life and what Being John Malkovich really means - Mr. Showbiz
Off-Hollywood's Quiet Man - LA Weekly
Writing John Malkovich - Reel.com
Being Spike Jonze - Reel.com
Catherine Keener on Being John Malkovich - Reel.com
Star Talk: John Cusack and John Malkovich - Cranky Critic
Star Talk: Catherine Keener and Cameron Diaz - Cranky Critic
Star Talk: Orson Bean and Mary Kay Place - Cranky Critic
 Cameron Diaz as Lotte |
Reviews: Inside the Actor - Guardian Unlimited
Metaphysical Therapy - Village Voice
The Last Great Movie of the Century - Esquire
If you want to get ahead... - Guardian Unlimited
Being John Malkovich - Film Threat
Being John Malkovich - Reel.com
Being John Malkovich - Chicago Sun-Times
Being John Malkovich - Cranky Critic
Being John Malkovich - Salon
Being John Malkovich - Film Journal International
Being John Malkovich - In Film Australia
'Being John Malkovich': A Portal Leading to Self-Parody - New York Times
(I'll get around to uploading more reviews eventually. Meanwhile, to search for more yourself, I suggest visiting the Movie Review Query Engine.)
Awards:Academy Awards (Nomination) - Best Director, Spike Jonze
Academy Awards (Nomination) - Best Screenplay, Charlie Kaufman
Academy Awards (Nomination) - Best Supporting Actress, Catherine Keener
Golden Globe Awards (Nomination) - Best Motion Picture, Musical Or Comedy
Golden Globe Awards (Nomination) - Cameron Diaz, Best Supporting Actress
Golden Globe Awards (Nomination) - Catherine Keener, Best Supporting Actress
Golden Globe Awards (Nomination) - Charlie Kaufman, Best Screenplay
National Board Of Review - #8 Of Ten Best Films Of The Year
New York Film Critics - Spike Jonze, Best First Film
New York Film Critics - John Malkovich, Best Supporting Actor
New York Film Critics - Catherine Keener, Best Supporting Actress
Broadcast Film Critics - Top Ten Films Of The Year
Broadcast Film Critics - Spike Jonze, Breakthrough Performer
Golden Satellite Award - Best Picture, Comedy
Golden Satellite Award - Catherine Keener, Best Supporting Actress, Comedy
Golden Satellite Awards (Nomination) - Charlie Kaufman, Best Screenplay, Original
Golden Satellite Awards (Nomination) - Cameron Diaz, Best Supporting Actress, Comedy
Independent Spirit Awards (Nomination) - John Cusack, Best Male Lead
Independent Spirit Awards (Nomination) - Best First Feature Over $500K
Independent Spirit Awards (Nomination) - Charlie Kaufman, Best First Screenplay
National Society Of Film Critics - Best Picture (Tie with Topsy-Turvy)
National Society Of Film Critics - Charlie Kaufman, Best Screenplay
 Director Spike Jonze |
 Cusack and Bean |
I Say: I heard a lot about this movie in the months leading up to its release. I saw the trailer and it looked pretty cool and funny. Late in 2000 I read the script for inspiration - I was brainstorming a novel at the time (for more on that, click here). It blew me away. I thought it was hysterical, really clever and exceedingly odd. What I didn't know was that I'd just read the FIRST DRAFT of the screenplay. Months later I saw the movie on video, expecting great things. The first ten minutes were entirely different to what I had read, and the whole second half of the movie was NOTHING like what was in the original script. I was bummed. Not only that, I thought Jonze paced the movie way too slow (I thought the script zoomed along) and the look was too claustrophobic. And while I thought the actors should have played it straight, I thought they played it a little TOO straight. It didn't help that a lot of the gags from the original script were buried in the filmed version. But I've only seen the movie once, and maybe my negative opinion has much to do with the unexpected shock of not seeing what I had read. Everyone else went nuts over it, so what do I know?
Latest: 4/5/05 - Acclaimed fantasy/sci-fi author Orson Scott Card calls Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the two finest science fiction films of all time so far, in an LA Times article that mostly brings down Star Trek a peg or five. It's just a small mention, but I figured it was worth putting up. Plus it's always fun to pick on Trekkies.
14/10/04 - Gray Marshall and Margaux Mackay did a lot of the visual effects for Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. They quite like Spike. Over here is a short interview with the duo. Mucho thanks to Justin for passing along the link.
3/9/04 - A reminder for the Aussies: you might want to tune into Rage on the ABC tomorrow night, because they're having a marathon of Spike Jonze / Michel Gondry / Chris Cunningham music vids. Mr. Fist has rather enthusiastically provided the playlist. You're gonna need a blank video or some uppers.
20/8/04 - News for Aussies! Mr. Fist of the BCK forum advises us to tune into Rage (ABC) on Saturday night, 4 September, because they're gonna hit us with an avalanche of Jonze, Gondry and Chris Cunningham music videos, in anticipation of the Directors' DVD release out here. Set your VCRs. If you're half as excited as I am, I'm twice as excited as you.
18/8/04 - Let's get a little kinky for a sec'.
When Being John Malkovich came out, the promotional material included Malkovich masks. If any of you have one lying around that you no longer want - preferably latex, but cardboard will do in a pinch, as long as it's in good condition - drop me a line, eh?
25/7/04 - A line from a Charlie Kaufman flick made it into Entertainment Weekly's Top 50 lines from movies. Guess the film, guess the line.
Answer: "No one is looking for a puppeteer in todays wintry economic climate." And the film, obviously, is Being John Malkovich. The quote scrapes in at No. 48. (Thanks rObix and Seis.)
Ahaha. 13A also has its own website. If you aren't subscribed to the NY Times and are too lazy to sign up, click here for the rest of the article, which was sent in by the esteemed Twink Schiff.
6/6/04 - Being George Bush. Heh heh heh. Thanks to Jess. If perchance that comic gets archived and the link stops working, you can find it here, also thanks to Jess.
Oh oh oh. I keep forgetting to mention that the Director Series Region 4 DVDs (Australia etc.) were finally released a month or so ago - you know, the work of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and Chris Cunningham.
20/4/04 - Adrienne points us to Premiere's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. John Malkovich's BJM character clocks in at 90.
3/4/04 - This week Metaphilm posted two differing interpretations of Being John Malkovich. Interpretations, not reviews. They're both interesting reads. First one, second one. Thanks for those, Read.
27/2/04 -
"Say, Mick, that sure is a pretty building. But why the hell is it on your News page, you big silly boo?"
Thank-you for asking, but I can do without the name-calling. Remember Twink? Came through not so long ago with a tonne of biographical info and year book photos, all related to Charlie, and all ethical-dilemma-inducing? He's come through once again with some niftiness. The photo above is of the building that currently sits at 610, 11th Avenue, NY - the address of Lacuna Inc. in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind AND the Mertin-Flemmer building in Being John Malkovich. I'm an idiot. I didn't even realise they shared the address. In reality it is a four-storey building (no 7½th floor)on the western outskirts of the neighborhood formerly known as Hell's Kitchen. Says Twink:
Today it's known as the more fashionable Clinton. (A friend of mine in neighboring Chelsea goes to the Chelsea-Clinton Health Center--no relation to the former first daughter.)
It's still a dumpy area, though; the building lies in the shadow of a billboard advertising a Penthouse Gentleman's Club across the street. Dog doo litters the sidewalks and many of the surrounding lots are vacant.
I don't know the significance of the building. Perhaps Charlie used to live there? I did not see his name on the building directory. Perhaps he simply liked to eat at the Pom Pom Diner downstairs.
And here it is at night:
And here it is circa 1940, from the New York City Municipal Archives ("for a historic touch a la the orientation video in Malkovich"):
Coolness.
20/2/04 - Aussie peoples might want to know that Being John Malkovich is airing on Channel 7 (and affiliates, like Prime) Saturday night, 21 Feb. at about 11:10pm. That's if they don't change their schedule. So I guess I'll be watching it for the second time ever. Wish me luck. Hopefully this time there won't be eye-gouging, hair-pulling or creative profanity. Sorry Grandma, won't happen again.
29/10/03 - The Work of Director Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry DVDs are released today. You can grab them via the BCK store.
8/9/03 -If you have a good memory, or you're like some weird web designer who files away tons of useless Charlie Kaufman minutiae, you might remember this quote from an interview:
CK: There have been a couple of parodies and I saw one of them, Being Ozzy Osborne. They're short films people are making for fun. There was a Being Regis Philbin which I didn't see. The Osborne one was pretty funny. They had some good jokes in that.
WiLL found Being Ozzy over here, as well as Being Erin Brockovich, which I think CK and Spike once mentioned. Cool. My modem's relative wussiness is well-documented, but if you happen to watch either of the shorts, tell us about it on the BCK board, hey?
7/9/03 - Thar be a new Spike Jonze site on the web, run by long-time friend of BCK, Mackenzie Payne - the artist formerly known as kJ. Go check out www.spike-jonze.tk and tell MacP what you think!
2/9/03 - The Work of Director Spike Jonze (an imaginative DVD title if ever there was one) comes out on October 28. Click here for info... and a trailer, if you're lucky. You can pre-order that DVD here at BCK, too (visit the shop - we get a small percentage from every purchase, the better to buy more screenplays for the site).
There's a Michel Gondry DVD on the way as well.
20/8/03 - The dextrous (one might say puppeteer-like) fingers of Taviss have gone above and beyond the call, transcribing Charlie Kaufman's intro to the BJM script book, which was published by Faber & Faber and is available to buy from the BCK Store.
Also added a new old review from the Guardian. Thanks to Madelaine.
5/7/03 - Being John Malkovich: the Abridged Script. Pretty funny, but there are funnier ones unrelated to Charlie.
13/12/02 - WiLL - the original - returneth triumphant with news that Comedy Central in the States will be screening Being John Malkovich on Sunday at 7:30pm, hosted by the stars of Adaptation. He thinks he saw Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep and Nic Cage, but he could be mistaken. Feel free to punch him if he's wrong.
7/10/02 - eBay are auctioning off an original Malkovich script here. Bidding closes in a couple of days, so get in quick if you want to get in. It's a studio original (not a photocopy) - great item for collectors. (If you just want to read the script, though, and don't mind if it's a copy, it'd be cheaper to buy the shooting script from a book store, or earlier drafts from Script Shack. Or, of course, you can download the first draft via the page you're on right now. Just scroll up to where it says "The Screenplay" in red.) Thanks to MagneticMonkey on the board.
1/10/02 - Over here at Amazon there's a 3-page excerpt from the Intro Charlie wrote for the trade paperback edition of the Malkovich shooting script. (Links to individual pages on Amazon sometimes get redirected to Amazon's main page, so you may need to go looking for the book yourself.) Thing is, the first page(s?) of the intro is (are?) missing. So if any of you have the book, would you be so kind as to scan or somehow transcribe the missing page(s) for me? You wouldn't win anything except for my undying gratitude - surely that's better than a trophy, hey?
3/9/02 - Found a whole batch of Being John Malkovich WAVs (sound grabs). I'll get around to uploading them sooner or later, but for now you can go here and grab 'em.
11/8/02 - Received my Sound Images disc on Friday. Check today's item in the News section for more info, because I can't be bothered copying and pasting it here. But I will say that I do recommend the disc to hardcore Charlie fans, hardcore Malkovich fans, and film students.
3/8/02 - Uploaded a couple more interviews and a review. Look for the flashing "New!" signs on this page (scroll up), cos I can't be bothered linking to them right here.
11/7/02 - Uploaded two more reviews, one from Esquire, the other from Guardian Unlimited. Also, I bit the bullet and ordered a copy of those two Sound Images CDs (see 27/6 update). Still no word from their "info" person, though. Their PR leaves a lot to be desired. Here's hoping the product, at least, is good.
4/7/02 - I don't know what's up with Sound Images. I've emailed them twice asking for a couple of pieces of info, and have received no reply. I was polite and everything. The first email was sent on June 21, the second on June 29. Their customer service person needs to wake up a bit, methinks.
27/6/02 - Here's something high-brow. Won't hurt a bit, trust me. On June 7 Charlie, Spike, Steve Golin, Vincent Landay and Eric Zumbrunnen were part of a panel discussion at the American Writer's Guild Foundation's "Words Into Pictures" conference in California. The discussion was mainly a case study about the making of Malkovich. Sound Images were there to record proceedings, and they're now selling the 90-minute audio cassettes for $11US (plus postage) to anyone who wants one. Or you can get it on two CDs for $26US. Click here for more info - you'll find shipping rates, order forms and what-not on the same site. (On the order form, the Kaufman cassette is listed on the second page, near the top and on the left.) Big thanks to the almighty Ryan for the heads up.
7/6/02 - I'm slooowly getting around to uploading the reviews. More of them to come when I can grab a spare moment.
