Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie tells a limousine driver his film is about flowers and accepts the driver’s action-genre version.

Scene 124 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Kaufman
Driver

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:04 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 124

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.
Scenes 10–88
Charlie wants to write honestly and make flowers matter, while also longing to be desired and understood.
Scenes 89–105
He leaves his familiar writing room and goes to Florida to search for the story firsthand.
Just before
Scene 121
Orlean asks Laroche to keep talking, but he says orchids no longer interest him and hangs up.
Scene 122
Charlie listens as a man pitches a conventional twist-filled screenplay, while Orlean’s research montage shows her growing bored.
Scene 123
Charlie opens an airline vodka bottle and smells it after Orlean’s voice challenges him to seek experience.
Scene 124
This scene

124INT. LIMO - NIGHT

Kaufman sits in the back seat and stares out the window. The driver looks at him a couple of times in his rearview mirror.

KAUFMAN (V.O.)

I have failed. I have nothing to say. I

am fat. I am not a writer.

DRIVER

Mr. Kaufman, do you mind if I ask what

type of work you do for Sony?

KAUFMAN

I'm a writer.

DRIVER

(impressed)

A song writer?

KAUFMAN

No, I'm a screenwriter.

DRIVER

Oh, wow! Good for you. You mind if I

ask what your movie's about?

KAUFMAN

It's about flowers.

No response. Kaufman tries to make it interesting.

KAUFMAN (cont'd)

It's about this poacher who steals

orchids out of a swamp.

DRIVER

I heard about that! Drug flowers, right?

KAUFMAN

Yeah. That's it.

DRIVER

I heard about that! That's great!

Action-adventure is my favorite genre.