Michael Zielinski
Professor Russell
CSC 208-401
April 25, y
Adaptation
Charlie Kaufman is a man who is going through serious depression, while his fictitious twin brother Donald moves in with him. Charlie has passion for his writing, and he believes that Donald just wants to become a screenwriter because he thinks it’s a piece of cake. Charlie is a fundamental writer, he believes that the screenplay for The Orchid Thief should be 100 percent true to the novel. This is where his Flaw comes to impair his writing ability. Charlie cannot stay concentrated long enough to make it through a conversation let alone write a screenplay. Charlie can't think of a way to turn this novel that he loves so much into a usable narrative so he begins to frantically try and come up with ways to begin the film.”To begin... To begin... How to start? I'm hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. Okay, so I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana-nut. That's a good muffin.” Each time he comes up with a way to begin the movie he starts over because he believes it to be trash. While Charlie is dealing with his writers block, Donald finishes a seminar and begins to write his own screenplay called “The 3”. After seeing that Donald successfully wrote his own screenplay, Charlie decides to go to the same seminar that Donald went to so he could heed the advice of Robert McKee. After Kaufman and McKee sit down in a bar and discuss The Orchid Thief, Charlie knows that he must change the way he looks at the book and write it differently than he originally wanted. During an interview that Donald pretends to be Charlie, he realizes that all her answers to his questions are too scripted and suspects that she is lying to him. Following Donald’s gut feeling about Orlean, both Charlie and Donald follow her to Florida, where they find her with Laroche. He is the orchid thief. Laroche and Orlean are lovers who find the orchids and extract a potent drug that makes fascination possible in anything. When Charlie is caught spying on Orlean and Laroche, she makes the decision to kill him so nobody
