Can’t remember where we read it briefly (probably Variety), but Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Synecdoche, New York’ screened to buyers this past weekend (or was it just an extended trailer?) at Cannes and apparently was met with a mixed response (apparently it screened early as a way to start a bidding war, it doesn’t get its regular screening until Friday May 23).
The Hollywood Reporter snagged an interview with Kaufman on Friday and the piece yields some good tidbits of information like the fact that director Jonathan Demme was originally interested in filming, “Adaptation,” and that Kaufman asked for Spike Jonze’s blessing to direct it after the auteur became busy with “Where The Wild Things Are.”
Evidently we were correct when we assumed that ‘Synecdoche,’ was originally the “horror” movie project that Kaufman and director Spike Jonze talked about in 2004 and that it morphed into the anxiety-ridden headtrip that it’s become now.
“Spike and I were approached by (Sony Studio Chief) Amy Pascal, who was interested in seeing what a horror movie from us would be like. We had a vague notion of what it would be that we proposed, and she commissioned it. I’ve never been interested in writing a genre horror movie. I think the impetus was to think about things that were scary to me. Then I just spent a few years writing it and it kind of evolved into what it became,” Kaufman said.
What’s it about, generally?
“I’s about the experience of going through life, and heading toward the end of it. The movie follows this character for 40 years, and it’s about people’s losses and death and fear of death and intimacy and relationships. Romance and regret and struggle and ego and jealousy and confusion and loneliness and sex and loss — all those things are in the movie. I wanted it to be an all-inclusive experience of a person’s life. It’s this guy’s world… “I was interested in not explaining things, having them just be poetic.”
Despite what you may think, Kaufman couldn’t have directed any of his past scripts because those had to pave the way for ‘Synecdoche’; Jonathan Demme was originally interested in ‘Adaptation’
“No one could get “Malkovich” made until Spike came along. I wrote “Adaptation” for the possibility of Jonathan Demme to direct, and when he decided after I’d written it that he didn’t want to, Spike came in. At that point it didn’t even occur to me to ask for the job — I didn’t feel qualified at the time. I wrote “Eternal Sunshine” for Michel (Gondry) in the nature of something he asked to direct, another script that had gone through a couple of different people along the way who didn’t work out. “Confessions” started with P.J. Hogan, who I was working with for a very long time and went through a bunch of directors. But I’ve been feeling for a while now this is something that I wanted to do.”
Contrary to reports, Kaufman is not a “recluse.”
“I’m not interested in that kind of celebrity. I find it unappealing and scary, but I’m not a recluse. I live a regular mundane life in Los Angeles. Don’t know what else to say except I’m not here cowering in a corner. I don’t have a veil over my head. I don’t say “I vant to be alone.”
