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You may have noticed: finally finished redesigning BCK! Hooray! The redesign is mostly to get the site working better on mobile devices (long overdue!), and to keep pace with security updates and whatnot.

Still some minor tweaks to be completed over time, but I'm fairly sure everything is working the way it's supposed to. If you find something that needs fixing (links not working, downloads not downloading, something looks off), let me know.

Charlie's off to the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival (August 11-18), where he'll be given the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award in recognition of his work. There will also be an open air screening of Adaptation. Charlie last attended the festival in 2008, presenting Synecdoche, New York.

Jovan Marjanović, the festival’s director, said: “We are thrilled that, after 15 years, we are welcoming back to the [festival] one of the most significant, world-renowned screenwriters and directors, and honor him for his work and dedication to the art of filmmaking. Charlie Kaufman is an extraordinary filmmaker whose films, though filled with biting humor, compel us to contemplate existential depths of the human experience.” (Source)

Thanks to u/pavingmomentum!

Little heads up: hopefully, the fractionally new-look BCK will go live within the next two weeks! Which doesn't mean much, except that a) the site might go offline momentarily while I get it set up (or even longer if there's a hiccup, but you can always check the FB page or Twitter/X/ugh or Reddit while the site's down), and b) soon it'll look better on mobile devices if I've done everything the right way.

HOORAY!

6 years ago I mentioned Orion and the Dark, a script by Charlie adapted from a picture book by Emma Yarlett, and today the film has been officially announced. Says Variety:

DreamWorks Animation and Netflix will pair on “Orion and The Dark,” a CG family comedy written by Charlie Kaufman and based on a 2014 book by Emma Yarlett. Animator Sean Charmatz will mark his feature debut with this darkly whimsical tale about a young boy confronting his greatest terror. 

That boy is Orion (voiced by Jacob Tremblay), an elementary schooler and full-time fraidy cat unnerved by heights, spooked by domestic animals, and rendered nearly catatonic by that worst plight of all – the dark. Only one night the Dark (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser) just about has enough, so he takes Orion on a nocturnal adventure to show the boy there’s nothing to fear but fear itself.    

DreamWorks Animation is set to announced the title onstage at the Annecy Animation Festival on Tuesday at a studio focus. It will screen three excerpts of a project already well underway. Netflix will release the film in 2024. (Source)

Awesome! Thanks to u/BartonCotard

More stuff soon. My house is getting a new floor put down right now (flooded back in Feb), so everything is in storage and I'm writing this on a tablet, which ain't easy.

Been a while since we had an interview with Charlie! In Ireland for the Bloomsday Film Festival, he chatted with Ray Darcy on RTE Radio 1. They talked about Ending Things, Jackals, the WGA strike and the emergence of AI in filmmaking--as you can probably guess, CK is not a fan.

I don't think I can embed the program, so you'll hafta click the link. Goes for 20 minutes.

Hanging out in Dublin mid-June? So's Charlie! Ireland's Bloomsday Film Festival goes down this month, and Charlie will be there with Eva HD.

Poet Eva H.D. will join Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York, I’m Thinking of Ending Things) in Dublin for a screening of his short film Jackals & Fireflies on June 15th in the IFI. The short was shot entirely on a Samsung Galaxy by cinematographer Chayse Irvin, and will be followed by a Q&A. Eva H.D.’s poem Bonedog was used in I’m Thinking of Ending Things.

The post-screening conversation with Eva H.D. and Charlie Kaufman will be hosted by Sinéad Gleeson.

[Then, on Friday 16th June:] To mark Charlie Kaufman’s visit to Dublin audiences will have a chance to see, for the first time, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, on the big screen. The film, which went directly to Netflix, will be followed by a Q&A with Kaufman hosted by Donald Clarke. (Source)

More info and tickets here.

Just a quick little check-in for anyone wondering how goes the site re-design/upgrade: it goes well. The major stuff is done--the updated functionality of the site. Now it's all about visuals, tweaking and testing and adjusting fonts and colours and whatnot. I'll be interstate shortly, for a couple weeks, but after that I'll get back to it. It's not a massive change, the main thing is it should look better on mobile devices and more like a site that wasn't designed 10 years ago.

The WGA went on strike this week, and in the lead-up to it Charlie gave a rallying speech about the importance of writers in the film industry (the importance of real art in general, really), and so it seems like a good time to mention Steamboat Willie Returns. It's a screenplay by Redditor u/PCchongor:

Inspired by Charlie Kaufman's WGA speech last month, I wrote a bonkers script in solidarity about a writer who teams up with Cinderella, Kaufman, and public domain Mickey to stop a studio head from using A.I. to eliminate the need for human imagination.

I don't often mention screenplays by other writers, for many obvious reasons, but this one got a Blacklist Recommend. What's that, you say?

The Black List is a platform for writers to showcase their features, pilots, and plays for industry professionals and get high-quality evaluations from vetted readers. (Source)

I've been asked not to upload the script, but if this sounds like something you might dig, you can check out u/PCchongor's post here, and/or email him here.

Eva HD and Charlie are becoming quite the pair. You'll remember HD's "Bonedog" featured in I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and later Charlie directed a short film adaptation of HD's poem Jackals & Fireflies. Now Eva has a new book coming out, The Natural Hustle (which includes 'Fireflies'), and Charlie will be in attendance for the book's launch--he's one of a few guests who'll perform some readings.

This is on Sunday, April 2nd at 5pm, Kingston Hall in New York.

Two fun facts: The Natural Hustle is dedicated "For Charlie, who helped," and Antkind included Eva HD in the Acknowledgments.

Thanks to u/pavingmomentum and u/agaetisbyrjun22!

In other news, I'm still working on re-designing BCK behind the scenes. Bit of a delay, because half of my house got flooded a month ago, joy! Also I take forever to do anything even on a good day.

Here it is! Video of Charlie's fantastic speech upon receiving the WGA's Laurel Award.