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Oscar-winning director/writer Charlie Kaufman is not impressed with the state of Hollywood writing per new comments made during a fiery talk amid the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
Speaking at the Sarajevo Film Festival (via Deadline), Kaufman went after the state of Hollywood. “At this point, the only thing that makes money is garbage. It’s just fascinating. It makes a fortune, and that’s the bottom line,” he said. “It’s very seductive to the studios but also to the people who engage and become the makers of that garbage, especially if they’re lauded for the garbage because they don’t have to look inward or think long about what they’re doing.”
He added, “I have this pipedream of creating an organization of artists to figure out how to finance and support filmmakers who make things that have value.”
Speaking directly about the WGA strike, Kaufman said talked about the “AI issue” and claimed that “writers have been trained to eat and make the garbage too.”
“As long as they are in that arena making that shit, then you might as well have AI do it,” he continued.
“Once you give that up and allow the studios to use AI to write their screenplay, there’s no going back,” Kaufman said. “Then there’s no hope because AI can’t create a moment of humanity. As long as people are doing it and there’s that struggle, then there’s always a chance that something will come out of it that will be worth something to human beings.”
Charlie Kaufman got his start writing films such as Being John Malkovich, Adaption, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He made his directorial debut with Synedoche, New York, and has directed four films (three feature-length, one short) since. His latest feature film, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, was an adaptation of Iain Reid's novel of the same name starring Jesse Buckley and Jesse Plemons.
