SPOILERS AHEAD I won't be spoiling any plot points that aren't apparent within a few minutes of the film, but in my opinion, the entire setup for this movie is something of a spoiler.In the late 90s, Columbia Pictures set out to create a straightforward film adaptation of the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. They hired genius screenwriter Charlie Kaufman to get the job done.Well, he didn't. Charlie hit a wall of writer's block, finding the source material ill-fitting for a film. So instead of writing the adaptation, he wrote a story about himself trying to write the adaptation. He gave himself a fictional twin brother as a foil (who now has an academy award nomination despite not existing). He inserted both real, fictional, and fictional versions of real people into the story. He twisted The Orchid Thief into a Hollywood fantasy of his own making, including inserting the author (who had not included herself in her book) and having her commit heinous acts. He found a way to merge that with the story of himself trying to adapt The Orchid Thief, and used it all as a meta commentary on both writing and the inner workings of his soul.Now - and I can't emphasize this next part enough - no one knew he was doing this. Charlie Kaufman didn't tell anyone except eventually the movie's director (Spike Jonze) until he was ready to turn in his draft to the studio, who thought they were about to read a screenplay for a movie called The Orchid Thief. Charlie believed he was committing career suicide, and not in that tacky "this is too edgy" sense - he straight up did not write what he was hired to write, and turned in one of the most bizarre, indulgent screenplays ever written instead.But here's the miracle of Charlie Kaufman: The screenplay was so good (didn't hurt that Jonze was onboard as well) that the studio just said "You know what? Fuck it. Let's just go with this." And that's how a movie about a real writer and his fake brother trying to make the movie you're currently watching but instead running into a fever-dream version of the book they were supposed to adapt got made.Oh, and one more fun kicker: the studio reps working with Susan Orlean, the book's author, still needed her sign-off, so they took her to lunch and got her drunk to deliver the news of what Charlie actually did.If anyone has ever taken a bigger screenwriting risk than Charlie betting his whole career on this screenplay, I'd love to hear it, but for my money, this one's gonna be pretty hard to top. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2Z3bmIg
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