Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Orlean recounts Victorian collector William Arnold’s drowning on an expedition.

Scene 19 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 11 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 19

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.
Scene 10
Valerie and Margaret give Charlie the assignment to adapt The Orchid Thief.
Just before
Scene 16
Charlie watches a cashier and other women, then looks away when the cashier catches him staring.
Scene 17
Tony spots Laroche’s crew leaving the swamp and radios that he has caught poachers.
Scene 18
Orlean types that orchid hunting can be fatal.
Scene 19
This scene

19EXT. TROPICAL RIVER - DAY

SUBTITLE: ORINOCO RIVER, ONE HUNDRED YEARS EARLIER

An overturned boat and uprooted orchids float on the river.

ORLEAN (V.O.)

The Victorian-era orchid hunter William

Arnold drowned on a collecting

expedition.