Charlie Kaufman On Being — And Directing

Fresh Air

Published October 23, 2008 at 9:39 AM EDT

Charlie Kaufman won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2005 for <em>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind</em>. — Charlie Kaufman won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2005 for *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*.

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaption) is known for his disjointed narratives and quirky characters. Now he brings that off-beat sensibility to his directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York.

The film features Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director who builds a life-size model of Manhattan's theater district in a warehouse in upstate New York. As Hoffman's character becomes increasingly obsessed with his mock-up of Manhattan reality, he starts to lose control of his own.

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