Adaptation

[modage]

the third act reminds me more of Sullivans Travels, where, the movie changes because it has to.  the brilliant thing about it though is the first time you watch the film you dont realize when it starts to change.  you are drawn into the intrigue and mystery that starts to develop long before you realize you are in donalds movie.   i dont think its gimmicky, it ends where it has to.

[MacGuffin]

Robert McKee: I'll tell you a secret. The last act makes the film. Wow them in the end, and you've got a hit. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you've got a hit. Find an ending, but don't cheat, and don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina. Your characters must change, and the change must come from them. Do that, and you'll be fine.

[Astrostic]

I attended a screening of Adaptation in Boston today, where afterward Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Susan Orlean, and Charlie Kaufman went on stage to have an hour long panel discussion about the film.

First of all, people can ask REALLY stupid questions at panel discussions. Too many people begin their questions with "Thank you for taking the time to come", and "I really love your work/this film." Why Why WHY do people do this! We can get more out of the discussion if these things are avoided. Also, a guy embarrassed himself by saying that he loved the film except when they go to Florida (the last 1/4 of the film) and Donald finishes the script." Charlie responds that actually it was Charlie that finished the script, since Donald doesn't exist. Later, a "writer" began is question by saying "By the way, I have 500 films in my netflix queue, only because that's all they allow me to have" prompting groans throughout the room. Again, people, PLEASE think before you waste a beautiful opportunity to get in-depth, RARE, insightful information from truly genius people.

Anyway, some tidbits that I remember:

- the real John Laroche (played in the film by Chris Cooper) took the money they paid him to use him in the film, and got himself some brand new teeth (this information courtesy of Susan Orlean).  This was the first that Streep had ever heard of this, and she was QUITE upset.

- a guy gave Meryl a blueberry scone, and then asked who keeps her from thinking she is as godly as her hype has allowed her to.  She said her husband and 4 kids.

- Kaufman gave a summary and analysis of the Sandler film "50 First Dates" and capped off the summary with "How Fucked up is that!"

- The real life Robert McKee made Kaufman revise his screenplay because he didn't like his portrayal in the film.  He also really doesn't believe in voiceovers as a good element to put into a screenplay, but, according to Kaufman, qualifies his reasons well.

- New Line had to license the rights to every character in the film, except Kaufman.  This turned messy, when New LIne then started to believe that they actuall owned Charlie Kaufman's name, and told him he could never use it again, leading to a legal battle that Kaufman won (that's so fucked even though I don't understand how that works).

- someone asked how they did Cooper's teeth.  He had some pressings made, waited a month, and on the day of the first shoot, the day that Cooper meets Streep for the first time in his life, they decide the teeth are the wrong color, and they have to redo them.  Cooper said he was unimaginably embarrassed and ashamed.

- Adaptation took 11 months to edit.  During these 11 months, Nicholas Cage constantly had to come in to redo his voiceovers because they changed the order of the film so often.

[tpfkabi]

cool. i'm really surprised they had something like this for this film since it's been out so long.
who put it all together?
did kaufman talk about his next project(s)? supposedly a horror film sorta.

[JG]

ya tickets to this sold out way earlier than i expected so I didn't go.  It was apart of a two-day thing for Mery Streep, and they'll be screening the new Altman film, no? 

[Pozer]

Yes?

[Astrostic]

The screening for A Prairie Home Companion was the night before the Adaptation deal.  I really liked it, really funny, good music, good performances from everyone except Madsen.  The sold out audience really liked it too, it was mostly an older crowd, most seemed to be familiar with the show, with everyone around me laughing at things that I could only imagine being funny because of references to inside jokes.  Not being familiar with the real show didn't bring the film down at all though.  I think everyone here is really going to like it.

[Neil]

I'm watching this currently and I just wanted to ask couple questions.

A few people on this board, have mentioned dislike for the third act among other various critiques.

I just want to understand a continuity issue:  The third act begins when donald comes to new york ( not quite sure) however the Indian man who meets Susie Q in the 1st act is fascinated with her hair, and Susie Q & Laroche concede that it was because he was high off of the ghost Orchid.

Oh holy shit.  I just typed this and realized maybe donald is not actually real, sort of like in his script the 3 script as  he explained, that the 2 people are actually one person. at first when donald pitches it to charles replies by says something along the lines of "Have you considered how to shoot this or whatever, and Donald says, "trick photography."  I always sort of assumed that although donald doesn't exist in real life, I felt that he was simply a catalyst in taking over the 3rd act because his "genre is thriller."

Does this make any sense, am just an idiot for now noticing this, or am way off?

Post script: I'm pretty out of my element, so i do apologize if this assemblage of words does not make any sense.

[squints]

I think you're getting it neil...but i just wanted to say

I remember the most striking thing about the entire movie it was the first to accomplish the problem of having the same actor play two characters and habit the same scene.

When i was a kid and i saw this at the video store i assumed that there were twin actors out there, one named Jean Claude and another named Van Damme