Idiosyncratic writer/filmmaker Charlie Kaufman is preparing another cinematic mind fuck with new film project Frank Or Francis.
The movie is said to be about ‘film criticism’ broadly, but the vague synopsis sounds as oddly inventive as you’d expect from the guy whose previous movie topics include controlling John Malkovich’s body via a hole in the wall (Being John Malkovich).
Film blog The Playlist have said the movie is built around two parallel characters: Frank Arder, a pretentious screenwriter-turned-filmmaker whose feature film “You,” becomes a sensation in Hollywood after it gets nominated for a record 29 Academy Awards. The other character is Francis Deems, a self-important, arrogant online film blogger who lives in his parents attic and his scathing critiques of Hollywood have earned him a bit of a following. So there you have the ‘Frank’ and the ‘Francis’.
Like his screenplay for 2002’s Adaptation, Kaufman is bringing his focus back to the film industry, so expect more brain-melting meta weirdness and a no-holds-barred insider critique of the world to which he belongs (at least professionally).
In a recent interview with Time Out London Kaufman spoke about Frank or Francis saying: “The movie I’m about to do has got a lot of scenes and a lot of characters. And the scope of it and the world it inhabits is very, very large. In the broadest possible sense, it’s about online film criticism, but as usual, the world that I’m writing about is not necessarily the world that I’m writing about. It’s just a place to set it. There’s a lot in there about the internet and anger: cultural, societal and individual anger. And isolation in this particular age we live in. And competition: it’s about the idea of people in this world wanting to be seen. I hate to use the word “about”, as it implies that what I’m doing is an analogy and that I’m trying to say something. I’m not. That’s for the audience to do.”
With Kaufman regular Nicolas Cage tapped for a role as well as Steve Carrell and Jack Black, Frank or Francis just shot to the top of our Most Anticipated Movies list.
