Charlie Kaufman Will Now Bend Your Mind With His Debut Novel

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by Benjamin Wright
March 29, 2012 10:02 AM
5 Comments

If you need your fix of the existential stylings of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Synecdoche, New York” filmmaker Charlie Kaufman, you may still be waiting a little while for his movie-musical “Frank or Francis.” Luckily, there’s another project on the horizon that should more than grab your attention.

According to Deadline, Kaufman has just closed the deal for his first novel under Grand Central Publishing, with the plotline being kept under wraps. We imagine it’s going to be as bonkers and enlightening as any one of the films that he’s written or directed, and could possibly even be a book commenting on the writing of a book by somebody writing a book, or something like that. Kaufman is tackling the novel even as he continues to develop the script to “Frank or Francis” for himself to direct, which is a musical Hollywood satire where a benevolent film director feuds with an online critic blogger, which is supposedly his comment on “online film criticism.” Nic Cage, Steve Carell, Elizabeth Banks, Catherine Keener, Jack Black, Kevin Kline and Paul Reubens are all circling around that project, but we'll have to wait and see when it rolls in front of cameras.

The filmmaker, who won an Oscar for co-writing “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” with Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth, is a hotly-debated screenwriter who’s come up with more aces than anything in his long career. We can’t imagine what he has in store for his first literary outing, but this writer personally can’t wait. No news on a release date quite yet, but we’re sure there’s more info heading our way on this one soon.

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5 Comments

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cinematic_high | March 29, 2012 1:51 PMReply

I'm intrigued by this news....and it'll probably be the first book I buy on the day of its release like I did with Deathly Hollows.....
J | March 29, 2012 12:40 PMReply

Kaufman should read himself some David Foster Wallace. Their styles might not be very similar, but it seems they were both interested in a lot of the same things.
J | March 29, 2012 5:18 PM

Well, I think he would have mentioned it somewhere... Like in an interview or something. Or by throwing a specific DFW reference into one of his films.

But yeah - a David Foster Wallace & Charlie Kaufman collaboration would have been fantastic. Alas, it will never happen now... Tough shit.
zatopek | March 29, 2012 2:20 PM

What makes you think he hasn't?
tyrannosaurus max | March 29, 2012 12:01 PMReply

nice!