Charlie Kaufman and the Art of Adaptation

Adapting a novel into a film is a sensitive and hazardous process, especially if the novel has already garnered a following of avid readers. When adapting an already existing work, the screenwriter may have the leisure of not having to come up with everything from scratch, but they must endure the added stress of wanting to do the source material justice and not fail the expectations of possibly millions of fans.

In this article I will not be looking at the adaptation of massive international best-sellers such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or The Hunger Games, but will instead focus on a movie which more than any other facilitates a discussion around adaptation: Charlie Kaufman’s aptly titled Adaptation (2002), directed by Spike Jonze and starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Tilda Swinton and Chris Cooper.

The screenplay for Adaptation is based on the novel The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. The Orchid Thief was commissioned due to an article Susan Orlean wrote for The New Yorker about the orchid thief John Laroche, on trial for stealing rare and endangered orchids from the Floridian swamplands. Random House approached Orlean with the question of whether she would want to turn her article into a novel and Orlean was up for the challenge. Once she started to ponder how best to capture the inspiration she derived from orchid collecting, Orlean…