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Charlie Kaufman or Richard Linklater's script

posted 14 years ago by ShroudOfFrost
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I just finished reading Charlie Kaufman's first draft of A Scanner Darkly that he wrote intended to be filmed by Linklater, but instead he used his own script. Has anyone else read Kaufman's version? Which one do you prefer? I personally loved Linklater's version, but Kaufman is a much more skilled screenwriter and has more themes (like our slow addiction to the commercial world that is portrayed by the Coca-Cola advertisements and McDonalds). He also has stronger moments in which he ends most scenes. But again, these are just my own opinions.

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[–] saint665 14 years ago

There were some great threads debating the merit of Kaufman's script vs Linklater's from a few year's ago, but they've probably exceeded IMDB's archive shelf-life.

The Kaufman script was decent and had a few things in it I liked (all of which were lifted from the novel) that Linklater didn't use. I think it gave a better sense of Arctor self-destructing from his addiction. However, Linklater preserved some of the dark comedy elements that Kaufman omitted, which are actually my favorite parts of the movie.

So, Kaufman's script was more tragic, Linklater's was finnier... It's all a matter of personal preference/taste. Personally, I think the ideal would have been to lift a few extra scenes from Kaufman's work and slip them into Linklater's... stuff for the back half of the film (like the lawn-mowing and the hardware store turning into a Rembrandt painting) to better-show Arctor losing his grip on reality.

Honey tastes sweeter when you anger the bees.

[–] ShroudOfFrost 14 years ago

I think I agree with most about the novel and such, but I disagree about the comedy. Before seeing a film on screen it's hard to point out Kaufman's comedy. I thought Synecdoche, New York was such a sad script and was reading for a depressing experience when I saw the movie, but the way he executes it there is more comedy than expected. For example, the way they treat the "aphnid" situation in the beginning was really funny.

Thanks for being cool and not biting my head off about finding the thread. I looked but didn't find one. But I figured I would when I came here. Anyways, I think Linklater is one of my favorite directors today and I would have loved to see him do a script from my favorite writer.

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