Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie imagines an intimate life with Orlean, who corrects his version of her marriage.

Scene 133 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Kaufman
Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:09 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 133

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.
Scenes 106–126
The swamp is ordinary, Orlean’s research fails, and Charlie experiments with increasingly personal versions of the book.
Scene 127
Orlean’s imagined portrait tells Charlie to focus on what he cares about, and he turns his own life into the screenplay.
Just before
Scene 130
Charlie writes Orlean into his screenplay and is stung by the book jacket’s reminder that she has a husband.
Scene 131
Charlie wanders Los Angeles as a woman’s snicker confirms his self-consciousness.
Scene 132
Charlie drafts Orlean’s distant marriage as another scene in his adaptation.
Scene 133
This scene

133INT. EMPTY LIVING ROOM - DAY

Kaufman and Orlean move furniture into the room. It now looks warm and inviting. Orlean wears a bandana kerchief.

KAUFMAN

I'm so thrilled I get to adapt your book,

get to merge my thoughts with yours. I

love that. It's intimate, like a

marriage.

ORLEAN

Not like a marriage.

KAUFMAN

Maybe what marriage could be.

Her eyes tear up. She kisses him.

ORLEAN

Isn't it ironic? You adapting my book?

My three years in Florida meditating on

my inability to experience passion

resulted in my finding it with you.