Today Deadline reported that Samantha Morton and Amy Adams are circling the project as well. BUT! HOWEVER! Deadline later updated that report, and the update goes like so:
Sources tell me that the project that Morton, Adams and Mulligan and Phoenix are doing was written by Spike Jonze himself, and not Charlie Kaufman. The film is about a guy who falls in love with the voice of a computer, similar to the Siri feature on the new iPhone. (Source)
(Emphasis added by me.)
You can read the original announcement of Morton and Adams' involvement at the "source" link above, too.
In conclusion: I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON. I am just a humble Aussie boy. I reports what I hears.
Bit of Eternal Sunshine-esque sciencey news, via the Guardian:
Scientists have picked up fragments of people's thoughts by decoding the brain activity caused by words that they hear.
The remarkable feat has given researchers fresh insight into how the brain processes language, and raises the tantalising prospect of devices that can return speech to the speechless.
Though in its infancy, the work paves the way for brain implants that could monitor a person's thoughts and speak words and sentences as they imagine them. (Source)
It's similar to an earlier experiment in which scientists were sort of able to translate images inside a person's mind, and broadcast them on a monitor.
John Lopez talks Frank or Francis on Vanity Fair's blog, specifically about how Charlie's script takes aim at Hollywood and tears the film industry a new one. Lopez wonders what kind of impact the film might have on the industry, if any, assuming that it gets made.
Now, casting announcements on the Internet are a dime a dozen, one degree above banner ads for online poker, but any motion to make Frank or Francis a reality is newsworthy if only because the script is a Trojan horse of knife-sharp meta-satire aimed straight at the heart of the industry Kaufman knows too well. It’s an all-out attack on awards season.
[...] The text has swum around Hollywood’s development kiddie pool as the current title holder for most “Unmakeable Film Out There.” Not because it’s a bizarre, phantasmagoric Rubik’s cube of dark humor—it is—but because the movie aims to take down the entire raison d’être of awards season and the explosion of film blogging that’s accompanied it. (Source)
I doubt it'll have a noticeable impact on Hollywood. I hope it does, but I doubt it.
A small correction to Lopez's piece, though: Francis isn't a blogger. He's a blog commenter. (I kept calling him a blogger, too, when the script was first being spoken about.)
Hollywood Reporter brings news that Elizabeth Banks has joined the cast of Frank or Francis.
Banks will play a highly-regarded actress making formulaic comedy bombs who is having an affair with Carell’s Frank. (Source)
They also say:
Despite certain reports, THR can confirm Kate Winslet is not in the cast.
Meanwhile, Variety confirms the rumour I posted about a while ago:
Charlie Kaufman has cast Paul Reubens in his upcoming musical comedy ''Frank or Francis.''
Reubens will play a film critic in the pic which Anthony Bregman is producing. (Source)
I'm really happy about this. I think he'll be excellent.
I am losing track of who's in this and who they're playing. For the record, Hollywood Reporter lists Jack Black, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Reubens, Nicolas Cage, Steve Carell, Catherine Keener and Kevin Kline.
How's this for cool? Via New York Magazine's Vulture blog:
Vulture hears that Kate Winslet and Catherine Keener have come aboard Frank or Francis; the former was nominated for an Oscar for the Kaufman-penned Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, while the latter got her first Oscar nod thanks to Kaufman's script for Being John Malkovich.
[...] And though Kaufman's script is positively scathing when it comes to the Academy Awards (Cage plays a washed-up actor who serves as the emcee of the event), we should note that with the new additions to his cast, he's now got an ensemble that includes three Oscar winners and can boast a bounty of eleven total nominations. Not bad! (Source)
Here's a trippy little electronic ambient number called "I Owe My Sadnesses and My Returns to Charlie Kaufman." It was created by a user named Oscifer (real name Taylor Campbell).
The track is on SoundCloud, a website where you can "capture a voice, moment or music in seconds or upload audio you’ve already created." The song is tagged with the words "Eternal Sunshine."
A blogger named Scott recently responded to John August and Craig Mazin's discussion of Charlie's BAFTA lecture, and August and Mazin have posted a response to Scott's response. I could've sworn I had the link to Scott's blog somewhere in my computer, but do you think I can find it now? No. I can't. Sorry, guys. (I had a link to someone's response to the podcast. Maybe it wasn't Scott's. I don't know any more.) [Update: found it, and it wasn't Scott's blog; it was Josh Barkey's. And it wasn't even a response to August and Mazin. Duh me. Senility approacheth.]
ANYWAY. Here's the beginning of August and Mazin's latest post re: Charlie:
Responding to our podcast Zen and the Angst of Kaufman, reader Scott argues that Charlie Kaufman is in fact thinking of the audience:
He’s just like you. He’s trying to write movies that HE would want to sit in a theater and watch. But what he likes to watch is something true, not something he’s seen before in a slightly different form. We may not be entertained by this, either because our culture has trained us that a movie should be a certain way, or because we simply like different things than Charlie Kaufman likes (because everyone’s different).
He’s putting himself in the theater seats as he writes, as we writers should, but he’s asking us to be a more critical audience of ourselves than real audiences actually are.
We’re conflating two points here. I think both are valid, but they shouldn’t be confused:
Screenwriters should write movies they themselves want to see.
Screenwriters should consider the point-of-view of the audience. (Source)
"PronunciationManual" is probably my favourite YouTube channel. They teach you how to correctly pronounce stuff. A few days ago, they put up the correct pronunciation of the word "synecdoche."
I'll be performing a little maintenance work on the site over the next I-don't-know-how-long (could be a couple of days, could be a week, could be a couple of weeks if things go horribly wrong or if non-BCK things interrupt me), mostly on the "Media" section of BCK -- ie. where you go to download screenplays and whatnot. So, y'know. Things in that area might go buggy for a little while. Everything else should work fine. I'll try to keep disruptions to a minimum.
[Update: I think I've pretty much finished the bit of maintenance. I suspected it would be a complicated problem. I was mistooken. HOORAY.]
How about a poll, eh? It's not affiliated with BCK, and you won't win anything, but it's Charlie-related (kinda) so that makes me happy, and you shouldn't really need any other reason for doing anything except for "it makes Mick happy."
Focus Features are celebrating their 10th birthday, so on Facebook they're asking people to vote for your 10 favourite Focus Films. Eternal Sunshine is on the list, along with a lot of other cool flicks.
As I type this, Eternal is leading the pack with 10.54% of the votes, followed by Lost in Translation (6.13) and Brokeback Mountain (5.53). HUZZAH!
You've read the transcript, seen the video, and the video of the guy reading the transcript. Now listen to the podcast dissecting the lecture Charlie gave as part of the BAFTA/BFI thingy. In this week's edition of John August's "Scriptnotes" podcast, John and Craig Mazin spent some time giving their thoughts on Charlie's lecture; their opinions run counter to Charlie's in some cases, parallel in others. Makes for some interestin' listening.
The relevant bit of the 'cast starts around the 17:20 mark and continues for pretty much the rest of the show.
New Charlie interview! It's more of a chat, really, and there's nothing about Frank or Francis or his project with Spike, but it's worth checkin' out. The interview starts like this:
Mr. Kaufman, how are you?
I am not that great. How are you?
Which I'm sure put the interviewer at ease. Random aside, though: I have a habit of replying "Good" when people ask how I am, even if I'm not good. It's automatic. It's what you're s'posed to say. I always tell myself I'm gonna give an honest answer the next time someone asks. But then I forget.
ANYWAY.
Here's another snippet, on why Charlie doesn't have an assistant (for research and stuff):
I’ve never had one. The only time I had an assistant was as a director. For co-production I had an assistant. But, no, I never had an assistant in any way other than that. I don’t know what they would do. They would sit next to me in my office in my house and that would be really weird. Research for me is part of the learning process. No one else could do it for me.
Why?
I read things really haphazardly – something leads me to something else. I spend five hours going through things online and oh, that leads me to this. How could anyone else do that? So the answer is no. (Source)
10 and a bit years ago, a 24-year-old Aussie in a small coastal town read the first draft of a screenplay called Being John Malkovich, and thought it was hilarious, not to mention clever. He wanted to know more about the fella who wrote it, so he Googled up a few interviews, finding that he really loved the interviews this Kaufman guy gave -- the Aussie could relate to some of what Kaufman said, and he enjoyed reading Mr. Kaufman's take on the writing process.
Around the same time, this Aussie was teaching himself basic web design skills. He thought it'd be an interesting experiment to build a website and see if it could gain any kind of audience. He wasn't sure what the site ought to be about. He eliminated any person or topic already covered by more than two or three websites. And since he was interested in this Kaufman guy... and there were no websites about this Kaufman guy... and Charlie was developing a small cult following, with three more films due for release later in the year (Human Nature, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind)...
The first few pages of BCK were uploaded on 18 December, 2001. Most of you weren't even born. The internet was very different in those days. I figured I'd get bored after a few months, but then some interesting folks started to email me -- John "the orchid thief" Laroche was probably the first. And more interesting people emailed me: fans, film industry folks, sometimes journalists. This website gig was all kinds of fun.
Now BCK is 10 years old, and I'm 34 yers old -- which perhaps seems a little too old to be messing around with a fan site, but whatever. Web design has become a proper job for me, and BCK has provided other nifty opportunities here and there. I've made a bunch of cool pals. I'm still constantly surprised and and delighted by the variety of people I hear from. It's easily one of the two of three best things I've ever done. I'm basically the same guy I was 10 years ago. This is sometimes very annoying. There are fewer fan sites online now than when I started; that's a bummer. But we're still pluggin' along here, still havin' fun.
Big, big, big thanks to everyone who's contributed to the website or emailed me to say howdy. I love hearing from you weirdos.
I intended to do a bunch of 10th Anniversary celebration type things throughout the year, but now it's December and it seems I'm a very lazy individual, because I did absolutely nothing. But you all can feel free to have a drink or a piece of cake in BCK's honour, eh? And if perchance I don't make another update before next weekend, have yourselves an awesome Christmas, Hannukah, or celebration of your choice. (And if you're no celebratin' anything, have an awesome day anyway!)
Charlie Kaufman's dad, Myron, is a full-time artist. His short story, "Horse Scents," has just been published by Bomb Magazine, and it is prefaced by a very sweet -- not to mention somewhat illuminating -- introduction by Charlie. The story includes illustrations by Myron. Huffington Post describes "Horse Scents" as "the offbeat story of a man who falls in love with a horse."
Charlie's intro begins:
When I was a little kid, I would watch my father playing with his toast crumbs on the breakfast table. He’d push the crumbs into interesting designs. My father was always artistic. He painted, he made sculptures from found objects, he fingered toast crumbs. I loved watching him do it: focused, creative, driven, even at breakfast.
A few years ago, I mentioned the toast crumb memory to him. I wanted to tell him how much his daily ritual had meant to me. He was quiet for a moment. It didn’t elicit the, “Oh, yeah! I forgot all about that! I used to love doing that!” I had expected. Instead, he finally said something like, “I was probably feeling trapped and trying to distract myself.” I was floored. I hadn’t gotten that at all from watching him. To me it was just another example of the wonderfulness of my dad, the most eccentric and educated father in our blue collar neighborhood, an example of his boundless creativity: toast crumb art. Suddenly it was something else entirely. (Source)
Cate Blanchett and Paul Reubens might be joining the cast of Frank or Francis, but you should take this info with a pinch of salt for the time being.
On a trip to Australia a few months back, promoting Crazy, Stupid, Love, Steve Carell suppsedly let slip that Cate had joined the cast.
Meanwhile, there's a password-protected post on a website called The Tracking Board, with a headline reading "Paul Rubens and Cate Blanchett Choose SIdes in 'Frank Or Francis'.” If you mosey on over to the New York Times'small overview of Frank, Reubens and Blanchett are listed in the cast as "Grape Snow" and "Magda / Ghost of Right & Left Thumb," respectively. Grape Snow is a bitter old film critic, described at one point in the script as "a bronzed 70 year old with jet black hair and an ascot." Magda is a "thumbless Romanian waitress."
Reubens isn't 70 years old, and Cate is neither thumbless nor Romanian, but I can certainly see them playing these roles.
RUMOUR ONLY!! But I figured I should mention it. If anyone can provide a definitive yea or nay on the rumours, I'll be a happy camper.
Edit: One of BCK's pals points out that Cate will shortly be busy with a pair of Malick films and theatre commitments and stuff. Word is she possibly turned down the Thumbless Romanian waitress role. CRAZINESS!
I haven't watched it all yet -- it's midnight-ish here, so I'm half zombie with tiredness. Also, I do not know how I can download and save the vid. The usual plugins do not work. THWARTED.
Enjoy! I may come back later and make this update more coherent, when I am fully conscious and not half-asleep and all.
[Edit: it's worth pointing out that there's a complete transcript of the speech on the page I've linked to, and you can download the transcript as a PDF. The video is a slightly shortened version of Charlie's speech.] I know I've said this before, but I love the speech; it's not just about screenwriting. ("Oh, gee, the Kaufman website guy loves the Kaufman speech. Big surprise." Yeah, yeah, yeah.)
There's a short profile of Charlie's agent, Sharon Jackson, who has made it onto Hollywood Reporter's 2011 "Power 100" list of "Women in Entertainment." Jackson's in at #73.
[...] The Long Island-raised Jackson, who went to NYU film school, also reps writer-director Charlie Kaufman, whose latest project Frank or Francis is moving toward production. "I promised him when he came over here that he was going to direct a movie," she says. "It was a script that he had written that he loved that he had been told he would not be directing. We spent the year putting the actors in and, with [WME Global head] Graham Taylor's help, raising an unprecedented amount of money in this economy." (Source)
Jackson's other clients include Jonah Hill, Amy Poehler, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Jason Schwartzman, Jack Black and John C. Reilly.
Earlier this year I linked to Mayer Hawthorne's cover of "Little Person," the melancholy Brion/Kaufman song from Synecdoche, New York. Here's Giulio Carmassi's version, which I think is pretty gorgeous.
You know how the chronology of events in Synecdoche, New York, is all weird and compressed? Time moves forward at an accelerated rate and nobody comments on it? This phenomenon is particularly noticeable in the opening scene, but you have to really pay attention if you want to catch all of the time-jumping and whatnot. To that end, YouTube user AfterClapENT has uploaded the film's opening 9 minutes, adding captions that point out all the various dates and times that are referenced. (The opthamologist never fails to crack me up, by the way.) The video says it's "Part 1." Not sure what might be in store for Part 2.
Earlier in the year I linked to a video of Charlie's 72-minute "master class" at the Goteborg International Film Festival. There was also a 30-minute video of the accompanying press conference, and I totally neglected to put that one on here. Maybe I forgot or didn't realise it was there at all, or perhaps I am lazy, or most likely I am just a terrible person.
Here's some great news: a video of Charlie's BFI lecture will be available online soon. (The real Charlie, giving the real lecture.) The quality of the vid looks terrific. Here's a highlights reel in the meantime:
Excellent. Big thanks to Oliver from BAFTA for the news.
Here's Jeff, who thought it would be an idea of some sort to YouTube his own reading of Charlie's BFI/BAFTA speech. The video includes cigarette-smoking and a British accent, and it goes for about 40 minutes. That's 40 uninterrupted minutes of one guy reading another guy's speech out loud for the benefit of the interwebs. It's awesome and bizarre.
Sometimes I wonder about the folks reading BCK. I really do. But I love your creativity and the strange things y'all come up with.
I also love Charlie's BFI speech. It's much more than a screenwriting lecture, that's for damned sure. (And at one point he talks about how everything ends up on YouTube. Wonder what he's thinking as he sees this.)
If you've ever wondered what Susan Orlean thought upon reading Charlie's Adaptation script, or if you've already read what she thought but would like to see a YouTube video of her speaking about her reaction to the film, here's the video for you. At about the 8:20 mark, Susan talks about meeting Charlie for the first time.
It's not official, but a bunch of people are saying Frank or Francis will be filming in Pittsburgh at the beginning of next year. The Glitzburgh blog reports:
According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, “New York-based production company Likely Story Inc. has been awarded a $4 million tax credit to shoot “Frank or Francis” in Allegheny County, according to public investment records with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, which oversees the state’s film tax credit program.” (Source)
Videogum have an ongoing feature where they hunt for the worst movie of all time. Readers are allowed to nominate films, based on a set of rules, and Videogum takes a look at the choices. This week: Synecdoche, New York. You might think they spend several paragraphs bashing the film, but that's not what it is at all.
Because as you will find, although we are discussing Synecdoche, New York in the Hunt for the Worst Movie today, it would appear that the trail has gone cold (good metaphor) because in fact this is not the worst movie. In fact it’s a very good movie. It might even be a great one.
[...] why do people think that this is the Worst Movie of All Time? It’s clearly not. But obviously people’s dislike of it goes beyond a simple dislike and into something deeper. The best I can manage is what I mentioned earlier about some of the film’s focus on “existential crisis” feeling simplistic and pushy. Ultimately, I think the movie has a lot more to say, but maybe people get stuck on that. Also, there is plenty of Charlie Kaufman-esque absurdity that does, at times, feel unhinged from any narrative purpose. Even after the second viewing, I’m still not sure why Samantha Morton’s house was always on fire? (Source)
And the review finishes with the declaration that the film is good, and you should see it twice. See? Not what you were expecting.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is now available on Blu-Ray. Culture Mob has a write-up (or have a write-up?):
You’d never mistake it for a bad movie; would that all bad movies were as immaculately shot and acidly funny and brilliantly acted as this one. However, when stacked against its head architects’ seminal works (for Clooney: Michael Clayton, Syriana, Up in the Air, Three Kings, Out of Sight. For Kaufman: Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind feels like a footnote, rather than a whole chapter.
[...] Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is nowhere near the Clooney/Kaufman Brain Trust it should be. Clooney uses style to overwhelm Kaufman’s sensitive and bizarre human story, and the result is visually sumptuous yet emotionally empty. Still worth a watch, for Sam Rockwell’s lead performance as well as for Clooney’s directorial acumen. (Source)
Features are the same as those on the Miramax DVD. If you're interested in buying the Blu-Ray, you might want to do it via this link, or via BCK's little store -- we get a teeny tiny percentage from Amazon. Helps us with running costs and stuff.
If you're a regular here, none of the five things will be news to you, but NY Mag have a little primer on the project for anyone who's interested. Having said that, #2 is worth reprinting here:
2. We'd heard before that Frank or Francis was about Frank Arder's relationship with this entertainment blogger who constantly insults him online, but it turns out, that isn't quite right: Arder's nemesis is Francis Deems, an entertainment blog commenter. He'll be played by Jack Black. (Source)
I keep calling Francis a blogger, too. I should stop that. He's more of an internet troll, rather than a blogger.
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