Charlie Kaufman seemed to come out of nowhere, despite working on shows like The Drew Carey show and various sitcoms. His first screenplay, Being John Malkovich (1999) was directed by Spike Jonze, and it won so much acclaim for being one of the most original films ever made, it had such a weird and radical edge to it. Kaufman would work with French music video whiz Michel Gondry on the little-seen Human Nature (2001), and then with George Clooney on the offbeat spy "true story" Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). But, his next two films won him more acclaim, he worked with Spike Jonze on Adaptation (2002), where Nicolas Cage played Kaufman, and his twin brother Donald, and the struggle to adapt The Orchid Thief, then there was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) for Michel Gondry, a heartbreaking film on breaking up and memories. It won Kaufman and Gondry Academy Awards for the screenplay. Since then, Kaufman has been hard at work on his next film, it has taken him 4 years to make this, and he's decided to direct it himself!! (Spike Jonze was busy doing Where The Wild Things Are, and Gondry was doing Be Kind Rewind). Synecdoche, New York is a romantic comedy, Kaufman style, with added horror...
The film has a renowned playwright called Caden Cotard (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), who plans to build a life-size recreation of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play. At the same, he has problems with the women in his life, past and present, including his first wife Adele (Catherine Keener), his second wife Claire (Michelle Williams), his mistress Hazel (Samantha Morton), and his first wife's best friend Maria, (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
Now, in case you're wondering, the word Synecdoche means "a figure of speech in which the word for part of something is used to mean the whole." The title is a play on Schenectady, New York, (a city in mid New York state, and a little bit of the film takes place there.) But, with a Charlie Kaufman film, nothing will be what it seems, there has been rumours that this will be a horror film, but Kaufman said it would be more creepy than horrific. But, it's already been established that this'll be no different to what he's done in the past, and I have faith in him directing, I'm sure he'll do good, he was involved with directors like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry when they adapted his scripts. Maybe he's learnt a thing or two from them!!
As for the cast, well he's got an excellent one together for this film. Philip Seymour Hoffman is always an excellent choice in any movie, and him and Charlie Kaufman working together is an irresistable combination!!
Plus, it would appear this could be Kaufman's version of a chick flick, as he's got a BIG female cast in it as well, as well as Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Jennifer Jason Leigh, (all excellent choices), Kaufman has also snapped up Dianne Wiest, Emily Watson, Hope Davis and Tilda Swinton for smaller parts in the film. So, it'll be good to see what they can do with Kaufman's script. It already looks interesting, in this image, you can tell it's from the imagination of Kaufman, and it looks like Hoffman is going BALD as well!!
TRAILER!! Anyone looking forwards to this film?? Anything Kaufman does is work a look, and this one has his best cast to date. It'll he his take on a romantic comedy, expect it to have a dark streak, like Eternal Sunshine. But, it certainly looks different from other films out at the moment. (The trailer hints that it takes Caden 17 years to create his version of New York for his play!!
) There's no release date yet, but it had it's world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this May, (to a rather mixed response), to help Kaufman with his debut, Spike Jonze helped to produce the film as well, if successful, maybe we'll see Kaufman direct another film, even though he has said he will work with Jonze and Michel Gondry again. Maybe he could win another Oscar for this, maybe Hoffman will do as well!!
