Charlie Kaufman

There’s a director who has been nominated for six Oscars. He even won once. His 2015 film was a critical and commercial success. It made over $350 million and has a 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. There’s another director who has been nominated for three Oscars...

If you’re an avid reader of ScreenCrush, you already know how much I love Anomalisa, the new stop-motion film from writer/director Charlie Kaufman. (And if you’re not an avid reader of ScreenCrush, what the hell is wrong with you?) In my review, I called it a masterpiece, a word I don’t throw around lightly; it’s one of only two movies this year I’ve rated a perfect 10/10. (Inside Out was the other.) When I saw the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie didn’t have a distributor or a release date, but now it does; Paramount is putting it out for the end of the year, setting up maybe the most competitive race for the Best Animated Film Oscar in the history of the award.

The best movie I saw at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s Anomalisa. At the end of my review of the film, I noted that the film didn’t yet have a U.S. distributor, so readers would have to keep their ear to the ground to hear when they’d be able to see this masterpiece for themselves.

A business trip to Cincinnati’s pretty mundane material for a stop-motion animated movie. Why not just shoot this story in live action? As Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s Anomalisa begins, there’s no obvious answer to that question. A man flies into Ohio to present a speech to a customer service conference. He checks into his room at the Hotel Fregoli and thinks of an old girlfriend who lives in the area. These are completely ordinary events and people. Kaufman and Johnson could have been filmed them with human actors at much less expense and difficulty. Quickly, though, idiosyncracies begin to appear in the film’s depiction of reality — anomalies, you might call them — and it becomes clear that the stop motion is an essential element of both Anomalisa’s concept and execution, which are both about as perfect as any movie made anywhere on the planet this year.

FX remains among the critical favorites for its high-profile talent and strong approach to original storytelling, but the latest pilot news to come out of the TCA press tour has even the most stalwart viewers excited. 'The Hangover' vet Zach Galifianakis will star in a new FX sitcom executive produced by Louis C.K., while John Hawkes and 'Arrested Development''s Michael Cera will star in the new C

Dan Harmon and Charlie Kaufman have both encountered career troubles as of late, but neither are letting that get them down. The two are joining forces for a new stop-motion animation project, and you can help!

Good news and bad news for fans of writer Charlie Kaufman -- his musical satirical comedy 'Frank or Francis' hasn't been cancelled, as previously reported by Elizabeth Banks. It's just been postponed, for now.

HBO has been the place to go for great artists looking to try something new. From Martin Scorsese to Michael Mann to Jody Hill and David Gordon Green, we've seen a number of A-listers set up a show on the station. The latest is Charlie Kaufman, who will write and direct a show with Catherine Keener set to star.

For most artists - especially in the current economic climate - you need to make some choices that may not be what your heart wants, but keeps your pocketbook afloat (and possibly allows you artistic freedoms at a later date). Which may explain why Academy award winner Charlie Kaufman signed on to adapt 'Chaos Walking' for Lionsgate.