Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie tells Valerie that adapting someone else’s work could make him see the world differently.

Scene 12 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Kaufman
Valerie

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 8 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 12

Unable to find a conventional story in The Orchid Thief, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman turns his own crisis into an increasingly self-referential adaptation.

Scenes 1–9
Charlie inhabits an isolated, self-condemning world while Orlean’s book supplies a distant model of obsession.
Just before
Scene 9
Valerie asks Charlie to adapt The Orchid Thief; he resists adding romance, action, or conventional lessons.
Scene 10
Charlie tells Margaret he will adapt the orchid book, and she urges him to pursue its subject seriously.
Scene 11
Laroche finds a ghost orchid, names it reverently, then orders Russell to cut its tree.
Scene 12
This scene

12INT. RESTAURANT - MIDDAY

Kaufman still sweats as he talks to Valerie.

KAUFMAN

...plus I love the idea of learning all

about orchids. I really admire those

guys who know everything about ants or

fungus or whatever. I'd like to be more

like that. See, I tend to write self-

involved, self-loathing... even

masturbatory stuff.

VALERIE

And it's wonderful, by the way.

KAUFMAN

Thanks. That's nice to hear. But I need

to challenge myself as a writer. I've

arrived at an age where I want to think

about the world in a different way.

VALERIE

Adapting someone else's work is certainly

an opportunity to think differently.

KAUFMAN

Yes. And I welcome the challenge of

taking a small subject, like orchids,

something that would never draw people

into a theater and making that

fascinating. I want to show people

heaven in a wildflower. As Blake wrote.