Adaptation: The Shooting Script
Product Description
From the director and writer of Being John Malkovich—a film by Spike Jonze, starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep, from a screenplay by Charlie and Donald Kaufman about the adaptation of the bestselling book The Orchid Thief—an exciting new filmbook in the Newmarket Shooting Script® series.
This latest head trip from director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) concerns an orchid collector (Chris Cooper), a journalist (Meryl Streep as author Susan Orlean), and the screenwriter (Charlie Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage) who, in adapting Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief, writes himself into the movie.
The Orchid Thief tells the story of a Florida man who schemes to clone the “ghost orchid” and sell it to people all over the world who are struck with orchidelirium, the obsession with collecting rare orchids at any price. Adaptation: The Shooting Script® includes the complete screenplay, a selection of 20 black-and-white movie stills, as well as an introduction by Charlie Kaufman.
Adaptation: The Shooting Script
Related posts:
Tags: a, Adaptation, Screenplay, screenwriter, Script, Shooting, shooting script, the shooting script
Category: Shooting Scripts | Posted by: brian on September 22, 2009
5 Comments to “Adaptation: The Shooting Script”
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
By Anonymous, September 22, 2009 @ 10:46 am
This self-aggrandizing autobiographical screenplay has virtually nothing to do with Susan Orlean’s fascinating book “The Orchid Thief”, which is about legal inequality at the Federal level. Instead, Kaufman insults his employers character and our taste & intelligence by insisting that no one will see any film that doesn’t have drugs, sleazy sex and high speed chases – none of which appear in Orlean’s fine book, but are substituted by Kaufman for the entire premise of the original work. Some of Kaufman’s past work was novel and entertaining. This screenplay is, at best, depressing. Read Orlean’s book instead.
Rating: 1 / 5
By Karen Bryson, September 22, 2009 @ 10:54 am
Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief is a true gem – wonderfully written and highly entertaining. I don’t know what Charlie Kaufman was thinking but this is no “adaptation” of The Orchid Thief. It’s really a shame that such a fine book is associated with this screenplay. Surely, Kaufman could have come up with a more creative way to adapt The Orchid Thief for the screen. This screenplay is little more than a rant on the film industry. It doesn’t do justice to Orlean’s work.
Rating: 1 / 5
By Anonymous, September 22, 2009 @ 1:42 pm
The book, “The Orchid Thief” is wonderful. It is ashame that it is connected to the narcissistic screen play and movie “Adaptations”. The only thing in common are the character names. I hope someone else will do justice to the book in the future.
Rating: 1 / 5
By M. R. A Bohm, September 22, 2009 @ 2:28 pm
I have not yet read ‘The Orchid Theif’, and as such am in a good position to comment on the greatness of this movie in stand-alone form.
Charlie Kaufman is a brilliant screenwriter – and Adaptation is a masterpiece. The point he has tried to make in adapting ‘The Orchid Theif’ to screenplay is that if he were to adapt the book in it’s original form, it would not ‘make it’ in the movie industry without any cliched Hollywood moments (scandal, sex, murder etc..). A movie built solely on ‘flowers’ would not grab the audience’s attention and keep them interested.
This point is further reinforced by the fact that Charlie’s twin, Donald produces his first screenplay using the exact cliches Charlie has been trying to avoid – but his script is deemed a masterpiece!
In Charlie’s script, he pieces together parts of ‘The Orchid Theif’ (presented in the most beautiful way – Merryl Streep is superb in this role!), with pieces of his own tormented life.
The end result, is a movie about making a movie about adapting a book to a movie. Confused? Watch it with no expectations, and you will be pleasantly suprised at how much you enjoy Adaptation.
Rating: 4 / 5
By Anonymous, September 22, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
First and foremost, I would have to say that this is one of my favorite movies. Charlie Kaufman really knows how to write such a compelling and remarkable movie. Second, many people have this misconception that ther movie was supposed to be based on the novel “The Orchid Thief”. What people fail to realize is that once a screenwriter is hired to adapt a novel, it is their job to write the screenplay in dramatic screen form. In ther movie, if people paid closer attention, Kaufman was clearly trying to illustrate the problems of adapting such a beautiful novel without risking authenticity because of pressures from mainstream Hollywood.
Although the film turns out to be a bit autobiographical, Kaufman still manages to remain close to the general theme of the novel which is how we are all trying to adapt to our surroundings(hence the title-”Adaptation”), Either way, Kaufman still manages to show the intricate nature of the orchids, and how they serve as a symbol to the characters that embody the movie. Not to be too analytical, the script/movie is still great. Don’t take my word for it, just watch it for youself.
Rating: 5 / 5