REID: When I arrived at where you guys were filming for the first time, it was eerily similar to what I had in my mind when I was writing the book. KAUFMAN: It’s in somebody’s head, but not necessarily in the head that you think it’s in, which appealed to me as a concept. REID: So the inherent challenge of how internal it is was actually appealing to you. And that appealed to me as an idea, to try to figure out how to make it compelling, because the book does it successfully. It seems very un-cinematic on the surface. But what I meant specifically was that most of it took place in a car. REID: Do you mean confined as far as the settings, or something more internal? Also, I liked that the confined nature of it presented challenges. I’ve been trying for years to get even a moderate budget and haven’t been successful. So I thought, “This wouldn’t cost that much money to make.” And I wasn’t in a position to get a big budget for anything. It took place in a car and a farmhouse, more or less. And this book, because of its irrational and surreal nature, appealed to me. I was looking for things to read that I might be able to make into a movie. KAUFMAN: Well, I was not just looking for things to read. REID: Did you find the fact that the book was short potentially appealing? And so he and I went to Netflix and had a meeting with them, and we talked a bit in somewhat vague terms about what the movie would be, because I really didn’t know. So we were connected, and we talked about it, and then down the road, I spoke to Anthony Bregman who ended up being the producer, and he said that Netflix would be interested in it if I were to make it. KAUFMAN: What I tend to do is find things I like, and then I call my agent and ask if the book has been optioned or if it’s owned by anybody, and it wasn’t at that point. REID: And then you inquired if the rights were still available? KAUFMAN: Yeah, and it’s been right a fair amount in my life. REID: So the algorithm was right in this case. And I remember reading the synopsis of it and it sounded really intriguing and mysterious, sort of dreamy, which is the kind of thing that I like. IAIN REID: Well, Charlie, I guess the first thing I would ask you is, can you remember when and how you came across the book?ĬHARLIE KAUFMAN: I feel like it was recommended to me on Amazon, based on stuff that I purchased or looked at. Recently, Kaufman and Reid connected via Zoom to discuss, well, adaptation. A snowstorm rolls in and the parents emerge, at which point things get downright Kaufman-esque. The thriller stars Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley as a young couple who embark on a road trip to visit his parents at their farmhouse. I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which is currently streaming on Netflix, is the 61-year-old filmmaker’s take on the 2016 debut novel from the Canadian writer Iain Reid. But here we are, 18 years later, and Kaufman has not only written an adaptation, but directed it as well. It’s a wonder, then, that he would dare to do it again. Tasked with adapting Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief for the big screen, Kaufman instead wrote a meta exploration of the process itself, specifically about how painful it can be. In his 2002 film Adaptation, Charlie Kaufman portrayed the process of turning someone else’s book into a screenplay as a special kind of torture. Jessie Buckley as Young Woman, Charlie Kaufman as Director in Im Thinking Of Ending Things.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |