Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head?
Maybe if I were happier, my hair wouldn't be falling out.
Life is short. I need to make e the most of it.
Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
I'm a walking cliché.
I really need to go to the doctor and have my leg checked.
There's something wrong. A bump.
The dentist called again. I'm way overdue.
If I stopped putting things off, I'd be happier.
All I do is sit on my fat ass. If my ass wasn't fat, I'd be happier.
I wouldn't have to wear these shirts with the tails out all the time.
Like that's fooling anyone.
Fat ass. I should start jogging again. Five miles a day.
Really do it this time. Maybe rock climbing.
I need to turn my life around.
What do I need to do? I need to fall in love.
I need to have a girlfriend.
I need to read more, improve myself.
What if I learned Russian or something?
Or took up an instrument? I could speak Chinese.
I would be the screenwriter who speaks Chinese. And plays the oboe.
That would be cool. I should get my hair cut short.
Stop trying to fool everyone into thinking I have a full head of hair.
How pathetic is that? Just be real. Confident.
Isn't that what women are attracted to?
Men don't have to be attractive.
But that's not true, especially these days.
Almost as much pressure on men as there is on women these days.
Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existence?
Maybe it's my brain chemistry.
Maybe that's what's wrong with me: bad chemistry.
All my problems and anxiety can be reduced to a chemical imbalance...
... or some kind of misfiring synapses.
I need to get help for that.
But I'll still be ugly, though.
Nothing's gonna change that.
Shut up!
Let's really try today to solve our camera problems.
Keep between-take time at an absolute minimum.
These masks are really hot. Okay?
I wanna be very well-heard on that from everybody.
Don't futz unless it's absolutely important to the shot, okay?
I don't say that for me. I say that for the people sitting here...
-Thank you, John. -...in the rubber.
-I like my dress. Okay? -Very good.
So now, folks, you better heed that advice.
Stand by for picture.
Have her rotate around the table a little bit further.
Hold on until we're clear.
You. You're in the eye line. Can you please get off the stage?
Yeah, just bring in the six-footer.
What am I doing here? Why did I bother to come here today?
Nobody even seems to know my name.
I've been on this planet for 40 years, and I don't understand a single thing.
Why am I here? How did I get here?
My leg hurts. I wonder if it's cancer.
There's a bump. I'm starting to sweat. Stop sweating.
I've got to stop sweating.
Can she see it dripping down my forehead?
She looked at my hairline. She thinks I'm bald. She...
We think you're great.
Thanks. That's nice to hear.
We all just loved the Malkovich script.
-Thanks. Thanks... -Such a unique voice.
Boy, I'd love to find a portal into your brain.
Trust me, it's no fun.
So tell me your thoughts on this crazy little project of ours.
First, I think it's a great book.
-Laroche is a fun character, isn't he? -Absolutely.
And Orlean makes orchids so fascinating.
Plus, her musings on Florida and orchid poaching...
...lndians. It's just... It's great, sprawling New York-er stuff.
I'd want to remain true to that.
I'd wanna let the movie exist, rather than be...
-...artificially plot-driven. -Great.
I guess I'm not exactly sure what that means.
I'm not sure I know what that means either.
I just don't wanna ruin it by making it a Hollywood thing. You know?
Like...an orchid heist movie or something, you know?
Or changing the orchids into poppies...
...and making it about drug running, you know?
-Definitely. -Why can't there be a movie...
...simply about flowers?
I guess we thought that maybe...
...Susan Orlean and Laroche could fall in love, and...
Okay. But I'm saying, it's like, I don't wanna cram in sex...
...or guns or car chases...
...you know, or characters, you know...
...learning profound life lessons.
Or growing, or coming to like each other...
...or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end, you know? I mean...
The book isn't like that...
...and life isn't like that. You know, it just isn't. And...
I feel very strongly about this.
John Laroche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick...
...pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered...
...sharply handsome, despite the fact he's missing all his front teeth.
I went to Florida two years ago to write a piece for The New Yorker.
It was after reading a small article about a white man and three Seminole men...
...arrested with rare orchids they'd stolen out of a place...
... called the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve.
As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being...
...all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.
It's interesting to contemplate an entangled bank...
Polyrrhiza lindeni.
A ghost.
Cut her down, Russell.
-Morning. -Hey.
May I ask you gentlemen what you have in those pillowcases?
Yes, sir, you absolutely may.
-Okay, then, I'm asking. -Well, okay, then.
Let's see.
We've got five kinds of bromeliad...
...one peperomia, nine orchid varieties.
You know, about 1 30 plants all told.
Which my colleagues here removed from the swamp.
You're aware it's illegal to remove plants or animals from state-owned land?
Yeah, and don't forget...
...these plants are all endangered, sir. Every one of them.
Well, exactly. That's exactly the issue. This is a state preserve.
Yes, sir. It is.
-But... -My colleagues are all Seminole Indians.
Did I mention that? You're familiar, I'm sure...
...with the State of Florida v. James E. Billie?
So you know that even though Seminole Chief Billie killed a Florida panther...
...one of what, 40 in the entire world?
-Forty. -Forty.
The state couldn't successfully prosecute him...
...because, you know, he's an Indian, and it's his right.
As repugnant as you and l, as white conservationists, might find his actions.
-But... -Not to mention the failed attempts...
...on three occasions to prosecute Seminoles for poaching palm fronds.
Which I believe they use to thatch the roofs of their traditional chickee huts.
How about that? With the chickee huts, right?
Yeah, he's right. That's exactly what we use them for. Chickee huts.
Yeah, but I don't...
I can't let you fellas leave yet.
-Just hold on there a minute. -Okay.
Charles, is that you?
Did you eat lunch?
I had that shrimp cocktail in the fridge. Was it yours?
I hope not. I couldn't remember, so I ate it.
Maybe we should write our names on our food items from now on.
-What's with you? -My back.
Charles, you'll be glad. I have a plan to get me out of your house, pronto.
-A job is a plan. Is your plan a job? -Drum roll, please.
I'm gonna be a screenwriter. Like you.
I know you think this is just one of my "get rich quick" schemes...
...but I'm doing it right this time.
I'm taking a three-day seminar, and it's only 500 bucks.
Screenwriting seminars are bullshit.
In theory, I agree with you. But this one's different.
This one's highly regarded in the industry.
Donald, don't say " industry."
I'm sorry. I forgot.
Charles, this guy knows screenwriting.
People come from all over to study with him.
-I'll pay you back as soon as l... -Let me explain something.
Anybody who says he's got "the answer" is going to attract desperate people...
...be it in the world of religion...
I just need to lie down while you explain this to me.
Sorry. I apologize.
Okay, go ahead.
-So... -Sorry. Okay. Go.
There are no rules, Donald.
And anybody who says there are is just, you know...
Not rules. Principles.
McKee writes that a rule says, "You must do it this way."
A principle says, "This works and has through all remembered time."
The script I'm starting, it's about flowers.
Nobody's ever done a movie about flowers before.
-So there are no guidelines. -What about Flowers for Algernon?
Well, that's not about flowers. And it's not a movie.
I'm sorry. I never saw it.
How...? Okay, keep going.
Look, my point is that those teachers are dangerous...
...if your goal is to try to do something new.
A writer should always have that goal. Writing is a journey into the unknown.
It's not building, you know, one of your model airplanes.
McKee is a former Fulbright Scholar, Charles.
Are you a former Fulbright Scholar?
Say something. I dragged her here, and now I'm not saying anything.
Make e her laugh. Say something funny.
I hate parties, Amelia. Why did we come here?
Because we're hip, young trendsetters on the make, aren't we?
More like old losers sitting on the floor, maybe.
Jesus, Charlie. Speak for yourself. Okay...
Charlie, we're gonna fix you up.
We're gonna solve the whole Charlie Kaufman mess for once and for all.
-Okay. -Okay, let me see.
What do you need? What, what, what?
Well, I'm glad you took the orchid script.
I think it will be good for you to get out of your head.
I think it'll ground you to think about the bigger picture, about nature and stuff.
I still can't believe they gave me that job.
I mean, after that lunch. I was sweating insanely.
I was ranting. I was a mess.
You were just nervous because she was pretty.
How do you know she was pretty?
After eight months of knowing you, I think I get what makes you sweat.
Well, whatever. Well, moving on, what next?
You need a new getup. This whole flannel shirt thing...
...it's not really doing anything for you anymore.
Thanks for coming out with me tonight, Amelia.
To begin.
How to start?
I'm hungry.
I should get coffee.
Coffee would help me think.
But I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee.
Coffee and a muffin. Okay, so I need to establish the themes.
Maybe banana-nut.
That's a good muffin.
Orchid hunting is a mortal occupation.
Victorian-era orchid hunter William Arnold...
... drowned on a collecting expedition.
Osmers vanished without a trace in Asia.
Augustus Margary survived toothache, rheumatism, pleurisy and dysentery...
... only to be murdered when he completed his mission...
...and traveled beyond Bhamo.
Laroche loved orchids, but I...
I came to believe he loved the difficulty and fatality of getting them...
...almost as much as he loved the orchids themselves.
I've been a professional horticulturist for, like, 1 2 years.
I owned my own plant nursery, which was destroyed by the hurricane.
I'm a professional plant lecturer.
I've given over, like, 60 lectures on the cultivation of plants.
I'm a published author, both in magazine and book form.
And I have extensive experience with orchids...
...and the asexual micro propagation of orchids under aseptic cultures.
That's laboratory work. It's not at all like your nursery work.
I'm probably the smartest person I know.
-Thank you. -You're very welcome.
Mr. Laroche? I'm Susan Orlean.
I'm a writer for The New Yorker. It's a magazine that...
I'm familiar with The New Yorker.
" The New Yorker? Yes, The New Yorker." Right?
That's right.
I'm very interested in doing a piece on your situation here, and...
Yeah? Yeah.
You wanna put this in?
I don't care what goes on here.
I'm right, and I'll take it all the way to Supreme Court.
Because that judge can screw herself.
-That for real would go in? -Absolutely.
We open on State Road 29.
A battered white van speeds along, making a sharp, skidding right...
... into the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve.
The driver of the van is a skinny man with no front teeth.
This is John Laroche.
I need a break.
-I loved the Sibelius violin concerto. -Yeah, me too. It was great.
-The end was a little weird, but... -Oh, no! God, it was passionate.
It was exultant.
The soloist was amazing. Such beautiful tones. So precise.
God, it blows my mind.
-I wish I could play like that. -You do.
Charlie. I don't. I'm mediocre at best.
Well, I love listening to you play.
Thanks, Charlie.
Here we are.
What are you up to now, then?
I should probably get to bed. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow.
Well, good night, then.
I would stay out.
It's just that I've really been struggling on the script right now.
I've been thinking about it too small, just writing it like a story about Laroche.
That's not enough. I mean, I wanted to write about flowers.
Anyway, I can't figure it out, and I haven't been sleeping very well lately...
...so I thought I should get home...
...and try to get a good night's sleep, you know. Start fresh in the morning.
Otherwise, I'd stay out.
I understand. I hope you figure it out, Charlie. I really do.
Thanks. Thanks for coming out with me and everything.
Sure, it was fun.
So I have to go to Santa Barbara next weekend for this orchid show up there.
I thought maybe you could come.
No, I...
I don't think I can make it next weekend.
I don't think I can.
I've got something. Sorry.
Okay.
So, well, okay, then. So good night, then.
Good night, Charlie.
Why didn't I go in? I'm such a chick en.
I'm such an idiot. I should have kissed her. I've blown it.
I should just go and knock on her door right now and kiss her.
It would be romantic. Something we could someday tell our kids.
I'm gonna do that right now.
-Thanks for picking me up. -This van's a piece of shit.
But when I hit the jackpot, I'll buy myself an awesome car.
Hey, what are you driving?
It's... Well, it's a rental.
-It's a Lumina. -Awesome.
I think I'll get one of those too.
Here we go.
Where do these people learn to drive, huh?
The world's insane.
So I was impressed to hear...
...how accomplished you are in the world of horticulture.
The thing you gotta know is...
...my whole life is looking for a goddamn profitable plant, see?
And that's the ghost.
Why the ghost orchid?
Well, the sucker's rare. You know?
And I'm the only one in the world who knows how to cultivate it.
See, the idea was, get the Indians to pull it from the swamp.
I researched it. Long as I don't touch the plant, Florida can't touch us.
And I stop future poaching by making the flowers readily available in stores.
I'm a hero, the flowers are saved...
...Laroche and nature win.
Great.
Did you get that last part?
Yeah, I sure did.
Orchids are the sexiest flowers on Earth.
The name orchid derives from the Latin orchis, which means testicle.
Hey, Charles.
I pitched my screenplay to Mom.
Don't say " pitch."
Sorry. Anyway, she said it was...
...Silence of the Lambs meets Psycho.
Maybe you guys could collaborate. I hear Mom's really good with structure.
So how come Amelia doesn't come around anymore?
Did you put the moves on her or something?
I'm looking for John Laroche.
I'm writing an article on John, and I stopped by.
-I hoped I could see him. -John's not here.
Well, you were at the swamp with him, weren't you?
I saw you at the courthouse, that's how I know.
I'm Matthew Osceola.
Susan Orlean. Nice to meet you.
Maybe I could talk to you for a second.
I'm just trying to get a feel for the whole operation...
You have very beautiful hair.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. I just...
I just washed it this morning.
I just used a new conditioner.
I can see your sadness.
It's lovely.
Well, I'm just tired, that's all. That's my problem.
So maybe we could chat a little bit...
-...and I could get some background... -I'm not going to talk to you much.
It's not personal.
It's the Indian way.
Angraecum sesquipedale.
Beauty! God!
Darwin wrote about this one.
Charles Darwin? Evolution guy? Hello?
You see that nectary all the way down there?
Darwin hypothesized a moth...
...with a nose 1 2 inches long to pollinate it.
Everyone thought he was a loon.
Then, sure enough, they found this moth with a 1 2-inch proboscis.
-" Proboscis" means nose, by the way. -I know what " proboscis" means.
Hey, let's not get off the subject. This isn't a pissing contest.
The point is, what's so wonderful...
...is that every one of these flowers has a specific relationship...
...with the insect that pollinates it.
There's a certain orchid looks exactly like a certain insect.
So the insect is drawn to this flower...
... its double, its soul mate...
...and wants nothing more than to make e love to it.
After the insect flies off...
... it spots another soul-mate flower and makes love to it, thus pollinating it.
And neither the flower nor the insect will ever understand...
... the significance of their lovemaking.
How could they know that because of their little dance, the world lives?
But it does.
By simply doing what they're designed to do...
...something large and magnificent happens.
In this sense, they show us how to live.
How the only barometer you have is your heart.
How when you spot your flower, you can't let anything get in your way.
He's really quite a character. No front teeth.
-Doesn't seem to bother him at all. -Why doesn't he get them fixed?
It seems almost sociopathic to make everybody look at that.
Yeah, but he gives a great blowjob, honey.
He is a fascinating character, though.
Sounds like a gold mine, Sue.
It could be. I don't know, you know? He's...
He lives with his dad, he's obsessed with his dead mother, and...
He wears his sunglasses on a little dingle-dangle around his neck.
Loving it.
-Tell them about the van. -Okay, the van. The van.
-I can't tell about the van. I gotta pee. -No, tell us about the van.
-It's amazing. It's... -What's in it?
-You did it in the van. -Shut up.
David, you tell... Don't you tell them. Don't tell them.
Okay, the van.
David!
This van was filled with junk...
Shut up!
Potting soil. Shovels. Food wrappers. Fertilizer.
Susie said she hoped it was fertilizer, anyway.
She said she couldn't be sure. Laroche had a certain aromatic look about him.
And she said...
She said perhaps his obsessiveness didn't leave room in his schedule...
...for personal hygiene.
Maybe the orchids got all the available water.
I wanted to want something as much as people wanted these plants.
But...
... it isn't part of my constitution.
I suppose I do have one unembarrassed passion.
I wanna know what it feels like to care about something passionately.
"Should one be lucky enough to see a ghost orchid...
...all else will seem eclipsed. "
If the ghost orchid was really a phantom...
... it was still such a bewitching one that it could seduce people to pursue it...
...year after year and mile after miserable mile.
If it was a real flower, I wanted to see one.
The reason was not that I love orchids. I don't even especially like orchids.
What I wanted was to see this thing...
... that people were drawn to in such a singular and powerful way.
So how many turtles did you end up collecting?
I lost interest right after that.
I dropped turtles when I fell in love with Ice Age fossils.
Collected the shit out of them.
Fossils were the only thing that made sense to me in this fucked-up world.
I ditched fossils for resilvering old mirrors.
My mom and I had the largest collection...
...of 1 9th-century Dutch mirrors on the planet.
Perhaps you read about us. Mirror World, October '88?
I got a copy here somewhere.
I guess I'd just like to know how you can detach from something...
...that you've invested so much of your soul in.
I mean, didn't you ever miss turtles?
The only thing that made your 1 0-year-old life worth living?
Look, I'll tell you a story, all right?
I once fell deeply, you know, profoundly in love with tropical fish.
I had 60 goddamn fish-tanks in my house.
I'd skin-dive to find just the right ones.
Anisotremus virginicus, Holacanthus ciliaris, Chaetodon capistratus.
You name it.
Then one day I say, " Fuck fish."
I renounce fish. I vow never to set foot in that ocean again.
That's how much "fuck fish."
That was 1 7 years ago, and I have never since stuck a toe in that ocean.
And I love the ocean.
But why?
Done with fish.
If you'd really loved something, wouldn't a little bit of it linger?
Evidently Laroche's finishes were downright and absolute.
He just moved on.
I sometimes wished I could do the same.
Good afternoon. So, what looks good today?
The key lime pie, please.
A small slice.
And a coffee, please. Skim milk, please.
Orchids. I love orchids.
Cool. That's...
Well, I'll be right back with your pie.
I'm so excited. I've always wanted to come to an orchid show.
I think these flowers are so sexy.
Let's see what's around back.
What?
-You wanna hear my pitch? -Go away, goddamn it.
You know, I'm just trying to do something.
Hey, thanks a lot, buddy. Cool.
Okay, there's this serial killer, right?
Well, no, wait. And he's being hunted by a cop.
And he's taunting the cop, right? Sending clues who his next victim is.
He's already holding her hostage in his creepy basement.
So the cop gets obsessed with figuring out her identity...
...and in the process falls in love with her.
Even though he's never even met her. She becomes like...
Like the unattainable. Like the Holy Grail.
-It's a little obvious, don't you think? -Okay, but here's the twist.
We find out that the killer...
...really suffers from multiple personality disorder. Right?
See, he's actually really the cop and the girl.
All of them are him. Isn't that fucked up?
The only idea more overused than serial killers is multiple personality.
On top of that, you explore the notion...
...that cop and criminal are really two aspects of the same person.
See every cop movie ever made for other examples of this.
Mom called it psychologically taut.
The other thing is, there's no way to write this. Did you consider that?
I mean, how could you have somebody held prisoner in a basement...
...and working in a police station at the same time?
-Trick photography. -Okay, that's not what I'm asking.
Listen closely. What I'm asking is:
In the reality of this movie, where there's only one character, right?
Okay?
How could you...?
What exactly would...?
I agree with Mom. Very taut.
Sybil meets, I don't know... ”Dressed to Kill”.
Cool. I really liked "Dressed to Kill".
-Until the third act denouement. -That's not how it's pronounced.
Sorry. l... Okay, sorry.
-Some key lime pie for you today? -Okay, yeah. That sounds great.
I'll cut you an extra-large slice. Preferred customer.
-Thank you. That's really sweet of you. -Well, I'm just a sweetie, ain't I?
-Still reading about orchids, I hope? -Yes, I am.
This friend of mine has this little, tiny pink one...
...that grows on a tree branch just like that.
-I can't remember... -That's called an epiphyte.
Right. Right!
Boy, you know your stuff.
No, not really. I'm just learning.
Epiphytes grow on trees, but they're not parasites.
They get all their nourishment from the air and the rain.
Well, I'm impressed. That's great.
There are more than 30,000 kinds of orchids in the world.
-Wow, that's a lot, huh? -Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
So I'll be right back with an extra-large slice of key lime pie for my orchid expert.
But... So anyway, I was also wondering...
I'm going up to Santa Barbara this Saturday for an orchid show, and I...
-I'm sorry. -Well...
-I apologize. I'm sorry. -So I'll just be right back with your pie.
There are more than 30, 000 known orchid species.
One looks like a turtle.
One looks like a monkey.
One looks like an onion.
One looks like a schoolteacher.
One looks like a gymnast.
One looks like that girl in high school with creamy skin.
One looks like a New York intellectual...
... with whom you do the Sunday Times crossword puzzle in bed.
One looks like a Midwestern beauty queen.
One looks like Amelia.
One has eyes that dance.
One has eyes that contain the sadness of the world.
So I got married, and me and my beautiful new wife...
...my now ex-wife, the bitch...
...opened up a nursery.
People started coming out of the woodwork to ask me stuff...
...and admire my plants and admire me.
I think some people were really spending time with me because they were lonely.
And you know why I like plants?
Because they're so mutable.
Adaptation's a profound process.
It means you...
...figure out how to thrive in the world.
Yeah, but it's easier for plants. I mean...
...they have no memory.
You know, they just move on to whatever's next. But a person, now...
...adapting's almost shameful. I mean, it's like...
...running away.
Keener!
Hey, man.
Please don't hit on crew members, Donald.
What, the makeup girl? She was hitting on me, bro.
Don't embarrass me. I have to work with these people.
I won't. Anyway, listen...
...I meant to ask you, I need a cool way to kill people.
Don't worry. For my script.
I don't write that kind of stuff.
Come on, man, please? You're the genius.
Here you go: The killer's a literature professor.
He cuts off little chunks from his victim's bodies until they die.
He calls himself "The Deconstructionist."
-That's kind of good. I like that. -See, I was kidding, Donald.
Okay. Sorry.
You got me.
Do you mind if I use it, though?
-It's really good. -I tried to split the Cassie scene in half...
-...from the beginning to the end. -I saw that. Why did you do that?
Because I wanted there to be more tension. And then you pick it up later...
-But are you changing...? -Keeps more tension.
That way the audience gets stuck early on.
-You like it? -I really like it.
You look hot tonight, baby.
Thanks, Donald. That's swell of you to say.
-Don't you think she's hot, bro? -I'm heading home, Donald.
Really? Come on.
Hey, it's Amelia.
Hey, Amelia!
Hey, Donald. Hey, Charlie.
-Hey. Hi there. -God, Amelia, we don't see you anymore.
-It's good to see you. -This is my girlfriend, Caroline.
-She's a makeup artist for the movies. -Hi.
Hi.
This is David, my friend.
-Hi. -Hey. Nice to meet you.
-Amelia's talked a lot about you. -Hi, I'm Donald.
-Hey. -Caroline.
-Cool camera. -So how are you?
-You know me, a mess. -Charlie...
...it's really good to see you. Is the work good?
It's a disaster. I don't know what I'm doing.
But, anyway, it's my problem. I don't want to bore you.
You have your own stuff, right? I mean, we both have our own separate stuff.
Anyway, I should go. I was just heading home to do some work.
-You coming? -No, I'm gonna stay at Caroline's tonight.
A little push, push in the bush.
Donald, you're such a tard!
See you, Charlie.
To write about a flower, to dramatize a flower...
...I have to show the flower's arc.
And the flower's arc stretches back to the beginning of life.
How did this flower get here? What was its journey?
Therefore, I should infer from analogy...
... that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this Earth...
...have descended from some one primordial form...
... into which life was first breathed.
It is a journey of evolution. Adaptation.
The journey we all take. A journey that unites each and every one of us.
Darwin writes that we all come from the very first single-cell organism.
Yet here I am.
And there's Laroche. There's Orlean.
And there's the ghost orchid. All trapped in our own bodies...
... in moments in history. That's it.
That's what I need to do. Tie all of history together.
Start right before life begins on the planet.
All is...
...lifeless. And then, like, life begins...
...with organisms. Those little single-cell ones.
And it's before sex, because, like, everything was asexual.
From there we go to bigger things. Jellyfish.
Then that fish that got legs and crawled out on the land.
And then we see, you know, like, dinosaurs.
And then they're around for a long time. Then an asteroid comes and:
...the insects, the mammals, the primates, monkeys.
The simple monkeys. Old-fashioned monkeys giving way to the new ones.
Whatever. And then apes. Whatever. And man.
Then we see the whole history of human civilization.: hunting, war, love...
...heartache, disease, loneliness, technology.
And we end with Susan Orlean in her office at The New Yorker...
... writing about flowers, and bang! The movie begins.
This is the breakthrough I've been hoping for. It's never been done.
McKee is a genius!
And hilarious. He just comes up with all these great jokes, and everybody laughs.
But he's serious too, Charles. You'd love him.
He's all for originality, just like you.
But he says we have to realize that we all write in a genre...
...and we must find our originality within that genre.
There hasn't been a new genre since Fellini invented the mockumentary.
My genre's thriller. What's yours?
You and I share the same DNA.
Is there anything more lonely than that?
What'd you say, bro?
-Yeah? -Hey.
Hey, Susie-Q.
What you up to?
I don't wanna bother you. Just thought I'd call and get some more info.
I think you say some pretty smart things, John.
Yeah, smartest guy I know, huh?
So...
...whatever happened to your nursery?
It was going pretty well.
But, you know, sometimes bad things happen, darkness descends.
Nursery business good, Johnny?
Everything's good, Uncle Jim.
This last year's been a dream.
I'm telling you. Finally pulling out of debt.
Amen, honey. I'm so proud of you two, and...
No, ma'am. I'm sorry, I can't answer that.
-Stay right there. -Hey.
-Hold it. Which ones are dead? -Sir, please, don't move.
-Which ones are dead? -Let's move it!
I killed my mom, you know, and my uncle.
That's how I lost my front teeth.
And my wife was in a coma for, like, three weeks.
And she divorced me soon after she regained consciousness.
Well, I think if I almost died, I would leave my marriage too.
Why?
Because I could.
Because it's like a free pass. Nobody can judge you...
...if you almost died.
Well, I judged her.
Maybe I was being judged too.
It was like a month after that, Hurricane Andrew came along and just...
...swooped down like an angel of God...
...and just wiped out everything I had left.
Everything.
I knew it'd break my heart to start another nursery...
...so, you know, when the Seminoles called...
...they wanted a white guy or an expert to get their nursery going, I took the job.
I wasn't gonna give them a conventional little potted-plant place.
I was gonna give them something...
...amazing, you know?
Yeah, I know, John.
I know.
" I was going to give them something amazing."
It's beautifully written. You have such a unique voice.
Thank you very much.
-We're big fans. -Thank you.
Laroche is such a fun character.
-Yeah. -It's funny and fresh.
And sad in a way.
So we were wondering what's next.
Well, Random House has asked me...
...to expand it into a book, so I'm gonna be doing that.
-And... -Susan, we would like to option this.
-You wanna make it into a movie? -Into a movie.
Oh, God!
-That's really... -How does that sound?
-That's very exciting. -Good.
It's just comical. I hadn't thought of it. I've never written a screenplay before.
Don't worry about that. We have screenwriters to write the screenplay.
Hey, superstar. It's Marty, super agent.
I just wanna remind you it's been 1 3 weeks...
...and Valerie's anxious to see a draft.
So if you could wrap things up and get it to her by Monday, that'd be great.
Call me when you get this. Adios, amigo.
What? What'd you laugh at?
-You're a genius. -Which line?
You're a genius. You're a genius.
"We see orchid hunter Augustus Margary.
He wears a filthy, spittle-soak ed rag around his head to quell the pain.
The back of his trousers are stained greasy black from an anal leakage...
... due to dysentery.
He moans with each tentative step through the overgrown jungle. "
I'm fucked.
We open with Laroche. He's funny. He says, "I love to mutate plants. "
He says, "Mutation is fun. " Okay, we show flowers and... Okay.
We have to have the court case. We show Laroche.
He says, "I was mutated as a baby. That's why I'm so smart. "
That's funny. Okay, we open at the beginning of time. No!
-Laroche is driving into the swamp. -Crazy White Man!
I don't know how to adapt this. I should have stuck with my own stuff.
I don't know why I thought I could write this.
See her?
I fucked her up the ass.
No. I'm kidding.
Maybe I can help.
It's about flowers.
Okay.
But it's not only about flowers, right? You have the crazy plant-nut guy, right?
He's funny. Right?
"There's not nearly enough of him to fill a book."
So Orlean "digresses in long passages." Blah, blah, blah.
" No narrative unites these passages." New York Times Book Review.
I can't structure this. It's that sprawling New Yorker shit.
Man, I'd fuck her up the ass.
-Sorry. -The book has no story. There's no story.
All right. Make one up.
I mean, nobody in this town can make up a crazy story like you.
-You're the king of that. -No, I didn't want to do that this time.
It's someone else's material. I have a responsibility to Susan...
Anyway, I wanted to grow as a writer. I wanted to do something simple.
Show people how amazing flowers are.
Are they amazing?
I don't know. I think they are.
-I need you to get me out of this. -All right.
Charlie, you've been stringing them along for months now.
Not to give them anything at this point would be a terrible career move.
Hey, my script's going amazing.
Right now, I'm working out an image system.
Because of my multiple personality theme, I've chosen a motif...
...of broken mirrors to show my protagonist's fragmented self.
Bob says an image system increases the complexity of an aesthetic emotion.
-Bob says... -You sound like you're in a cult.
No, it's just good writing technique.
I made you a copy of McKee's 1 0 Commandments.
I posted one over both our work areas.
You shouldn't have done that.
Because it's extremely helpful. Hey, Charles, I'm putting a song on.
" Happy Together."
Like when characters sing songs in their pajamas and dance around.
I thought it'd break the tension.
At first I was nervous about putting a song in a thriller...
...but Bob says that Casablanca, one of the greatest screenplays ever written...
...did exactly that. Mixed genres.
I haven't slept in a week, Donald.
-I need to go to bed. -Okay.
Good night.
-Yeah? -Hi.
John, it's Susan again.
Hey, Susie-Q.
How's it going?
Great. I'm training myself on the Internet.
It's fascinating. I'm doing pornography.
It's amazing how much these suckers will pay for photographs of chicks.
It doesn't matter if they're fat or ugly or what.
Well, that sounds good.
It's great, is what it is.
Listen, John, I hate feeling like I'm being a pain to you, but I...
I still haven't seen a ghost.
-Yeah? -And I was hoping maybe you'd...
Yeah.
Yeah, I'll take you in.
-Tomorrow. -Really?
Thank you so much.
Oh, John.
Damn it.
There are too many ideas and things and people.
Too many directions to go.
I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care about something...
... is that it whittles the world down...
... to a more manageable size.
Such sweet, sad insights.
So true.
I like looking at you.
I like looking at you too, Charlie.
I don't know how to do this.
I'm afraid I'll disappoint you.
You've written a beautiful book.
I can't sleep.
I'm losing my hair. I'm fat and repulsive.
Shh. You're not. You're not.
Just whittle it down, you know?
Focus on one thing in the story.
Find that one thing...
... that you care passionately about...
...and then write about that.
We see Susan Orlean: delicate, haunted by loneliness...
...fragile, beautiful.
She lies awake next to her sleeping, insensitive husband.
Her voice-over begins:
" I suppose I do have one unembarrassed passion.
I want to know how it feels to care about something passionately."
-Hey. -Morning.
Hey, you two. Up early for a change?
-You seem chipper. -I'm good. I have some new ideas.
God, you guys are so smart. It's like a brain factory in here.
-I got some ideas too this morning. -He got really, really good ones.
You know, in a Donald sort of way.
I'm putting... Hey! What?
I'm putting in a chase sequence. So the killer...
...flees on horseback with the girl. The cop's after them on a motorcycle.
And it's like a battle between motors and horses.
Like technology versus horse.
And they're still all one person, right?
Well, that's the big payoff.
-It sounds exciting. -Thanks, man.