JA from MNPP here, with a look at the latest Charlie Kaufman news. If you’re like me – and generally that’s something I encourage, since I just really think my opinions are top drawer – then you think that Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche New York was one of the finest films of the last decade. Endlessly rewarding and deeply moving... I’ve seen it five or six times at this point and it’s like looking through a prism, new colors and shapes forming in front of me with every new glance. So I’m primed to follow news of what he’ll be handling next. We first heard about Frank or Francis back in March but details were few and far between.
Now, notsomuch. You can read all about it over here but the general idea is this is a musical (of sorts) about a war (of sorts) between a director and a blogger that aims to eviscerate every aspect of Hollywood (of sorts). Nothing is that simple where Charlie’s words are concerned, but that condenses it into a sentence, I guess. Steve Carell is set to play the director, and Jack Black is set to play the blogger (of course he is since all bloggers look like Jack Black). Kevin Kline will be playing two roles a la Nicholas Cage in Adaptation. Speaking of Cage he’s also in this movie, playing “The Emcee,” which, name-alon,e immediately brings to mind Joel Grey’s role in Cabaret, right? And if this thing's as musical as they say it is, that can't be an associative mistake.
The first thing that strikes me here is how man-centric the cast is. Synecdoche was so heavily populated with fantastic actresses – Catherine Keener and Michelle Williams and Samantha Morton (dear god, she’s so good in it) and Hope Davis and Jennifer Jason Leigh and Emily Watson and Dianne Weist all bouncing off of Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the middle. CK’s always given women such plum goods to play with – Meryl in Adaptation! Diaz in Being John Malkovich! – that I find myself longing to hear some lady names soon. But I’m certainly ready for whatever Kaufman sends my way. And on top of this he’s also written Spike Jonze’s next movie, too! Oh, yes.