Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman Hates Awards, Puppies

Okay, the puppy thing is a lie, but Mr. Kaufman does seem to have a hate on for the awards season and... everything it stands for. According to Vanity Fair, the Oscar-winning writer (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has a new movie in pre-production that has more than a little disdain for Hollywood’s awards circuit, film bloggers and  their co-dependent relationship.

 

The movie, titled Frank or Francis, will be Kaufman’s sophomore directorial effort after 2008’s Synecdoche, New York and will be “a satire of Hollywood set to music, where a film director feuds with a blogger.” Cast members currently include Steve Carell (as filmmaker Frank), Jack Black (as film blogger Francis), Nicholas Cage, Elizabeth Banks, Catherine Keener, Kevin Kline and Paul Reubens (of Pee-wee Herman fame) playing a film critic.

With his track record of one Oscar win for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and two other nominations (and a slew of other non-Oscar awards and noms) it’s a safe guess that the subject of the movie is at least inspired by Kaufman’s own experiences. (And we already know that he kinda likes meta storylines.) As a darkly humorous take on Hollywood and its culture of awarding and rewarding itself ad nauseum, it’s not surprising that major studios shied away from backing the script when it was being shopped around. It is stands now, though, it’s being produced by smallish company Likely Story and biggish company Sony Pictures Entertainment, and it will hit theatres in 2013.

We can’t speak for the entire entertainment industry, but we can’t wait to keeping blogging about it here on thesubstream in the hopes that Kaufman will engage in a feud with us, because we’re dying to ask him how to find the portal to his brain. 

Zalina Alvi is a writer and co-host of the podcast Love This Movie, Hate This Film. Reach her at www.zalinaalvi.com and follow her on Twitter at @zalina and @LTMHTF! More of her work on thesubstream can be found here.