Adaptation

Adaptation (stylized as Adaptation.) is a 2002 American metafictional comedy-drama film directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman. It features an ensemble cast led by Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper, with Tilda Swinton, Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ron Livingston in supporting roles. Kaufman based Adaptation on his struggles to adapt Susan Orlean's 1998 nonfiction book The Orchid Thief while suffering from writer's block. It involves elements adapted from the book, plus fictitious elements, including Kaufman's twin brother (also credited as a writer for the film) and a romance between Orlean and John Laroche (Cooper). It culminates in completely invented elements, including versions of Orlean and Laroche three years after the events of The Orchid Thief. Adaptation received widespread critical acclaim for its direction, screenplay, humor, and the performances of Cage, Cooper, and Streep. It received awards at the 75th Academy Awards, 60th Golden Globe Awards, and 56th British Academy Film Awards, with Cooper winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Kaufman winning the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. A British Film Institute poll ranked it one of the thirty best films of the 2000s.