In "Adaptation," the hall of mirrors movie that plays with the angst of its screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, screenwriting guru Robert McKee appears as a pivotal character. Brash and bushy-browed, McKee (played by Brian Cox) embodies Hollywood's crass commercialism, stomping on creative efforts in favor of tried-and-true paths to commercial success.
Kaufman is unconventional enough to have written himself into the story, and his character Charlie (played by Nicolas Cage) sneers at McKee's "10 commandments of screenwriting," calling his method "dangerous to writers who want to try something new." He compares students in McKee's seminars to members of a cult. And he is determined not to ruin his script with the formulaic car chases, guns, gratuitous sex or neat Hollywood epiphanies that he believes a McKee-style film would have.
That caricature of his work doesn't bother him in the slightest, McKee said. "When they came to me with this draft, I realized of course what Charlie was doing," McKee said. "The story needed an antagonist. And I said, 'I'm happy to play your antagonist.' " What's more, he said, he didn't feel singled out. Kaufman lacerated his own character, calling himself "fat, bald and repulsive."
The $19-million Sony production will debut Dec. 6 and marks the second collaboration of Kaufman and Spike Jonze, who created "Being John Malkovich" (1999), the story of unhappy people who escape into the mind of the actor. "Adaptation" carries on where "Malkovich" left off, McKee said, delving this time into the psyche of the self-obsessed screenwriter as he writes the movie we're watching.
Charlie is struggling to adapt a book by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), who tells the story of Florida orchid thief John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a man of many short-lived passions. As she spends time with him, she aches to know why she can't feel the same sort of passion. Charlie uses her self-inquisition as a jumping-off point for asking why he can't find a girl, deal with his addictions, do something meaningful with his life, or just write the adaptation.
Meanwhile, his twin, Donald (also Cage), learns scriptwriting from McKee, impresses Charlie's agent and skips merrily to the bank with a girlfriend.
"The whole film takes place in the mind of Charlie Kaufman," McKee said. "The first clue is that he splits himself into Charlie and Donald." "Donald" does not exist but is credited as a co-writer.
