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May 13, 2008

Sneak Pic: Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman, the writer behind Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and Adaptation, is now directing his first feature film, based on his original script titled Synecdoche, New York. It's about a down on his luck theater director played by Philip Seymour Hoffman who, after his wife leaves him and he's diagnosed with an illness that progressively shuts down his autonomic functions, moves his theater company from Schenectady to a giant warehouse in New York, where he proceeds to create a miniaturized version of the city and stage a "play" of regular life.

The first production stills have surfaced (via slashfilm). You can just make out the metal bracings of the warehouse walls in the background.


For a fake apartment in a fake New York, this makes me fake want to kill someone.

Two more after the jump.


A quiet, but more notably early moment in the film, when Hoffman still has hair.


I'm pretty sure that's how Hoffman dresses to go to the pool in real life.

It's always hard to make any meaningful judgments based off of production stills, BUT I WILL TRY. This looks great. I like Charlie Kaufman (with the exception of Being John Malkovich, which I have seen three times and cannot bring myself to like, no matter how much I want to.) I just rewatched Adaptation this weekend, and I think it's one of the best written movies. Such a good writing. It will be interesting to see how he does as a director. And, of course, I have a special place in my heart for vocabulary lessons.

syn·ec·do·che (sĭ-něk'də-kē) n. A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).

Where does Charlie Kaufman get his ideas?

Posted by Gabe at 10:01 AM in
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4 Comments

Kaufman gets his ideas like everybody else does, whilst sitting on the pot. He just makes his pot-sitting time work a lot more for him than others do.

Posted by: Chadams at 05/13/08 11:10 AM | Reply
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he gets his ideas from The Hills.

(or vice versa. or something. think about it. so true.)

also, what if they mixed the hills with twin peaks? pretty sure that'd be so awesome.

Posted by: genevieveyorke at 05/13/08 12:34 PM | Reply
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glad to see i'm not the only one who hates Being John Malkovich. don't feel bad gabe- it's the Snakes on a Plane of movies.

Posted by: action bastard profile link at 05/13/08 4:02 PM | Reply
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glad to see i'm not the only one who hates Being John Malkovich. don't feel bad gabe- it's the Snakes on a Plane of movies.

Posted by: action bastard profile link at 05/13/08 4:02 PM | Reply
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