On this day in movie history - Adaptation (2002 movie & book):

Adaptation

directed by Spike Jonze,

written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman,

based on the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean,

was released in the United States on December 6, 2002.
Music by Carter Burwell.

Cast:

Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Ron Livingston, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Judy Greer, Bob Yerkes, Jim Beaver, Litefoot, Jay Tavare, Doug Jones, Peter Jason, John Cusack, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich, Lance Acord, Spike Jonze, Doug Jones, Curtis Hanson, David O. Russell.

Recommended reading:

The Orchid Thief:

A True Story of Beauty and Obsession

By Susan Orlean.

Filmed as Adaptation (2002), directed by Spike Jonze.

First published 1998.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 044900371X

ISBN-13: 978-0449003718

Description:

A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an endangered flower – the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii – a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean – and the reader – will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion.

In this new edition, coming fifteen years after its initial publication and twenty years after she first met the “orchid thief,” Orlean revisits this unforgettable world, and the route by which it was brought to the screen in the film Adaptation, in a new retrospective essay.

Praise for The Orchid Thief:

“Stylishly written, whimsical yet sophisticated, quirkily detailed and full of empathy . . . The Orchid Thief shows [Orlean’s] gifts in full bloom.” – The New York Times Book Review.

“Fascinating . . . an engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing.” – Los Angeles Times.

“Orlean’s snapshot-vivid, pitch-perfect prose . . . is fast becoming one of our national treasures.” – The Washington Post Book World.

“Orlean’s gifts [are] her ear for the self-skewing dialogue, her eye for the incongruous, convincing detail, and her Didion-like deftness in description.” – Boston Sunday Globe.

“A swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America great.” – The Wall Street Journal.

On this day in movie history - Death Becomes Her (1992):

Death Becomes Her

directed by Robert Zemeckis,

written by Martin Donovan and David Koepp,

was released in the United States on July 13, 1992.
Music by Alan Silvestri.

Cast:

Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Ogilvy, Adam Storke, Nancy Fish, Alaina Reed-Hall, Michelle Johnson, Mary Ellen Trainor, William Frankfather, John Ingle, Clement von Franckenstein, Petrea Burchard, Jim Jansen, Mimi Kennedy, Paulo Tocha, Mark Davenport, Thomas Murphy, Michael Mills, Sonia Jackson, Jill C. Klein, Jean St. James, Debra Jo Rupp, Carol Ann Susi, Kay Yamamoto, Jacquelyn K. Koch, Anya Longwell, Stuart Mabray, Colleen Morris, Jonathan Silverman, Meg Wittner, Carrie Jean Yazel, Michael A. Nickles, John Enos, Danny Lee Clark, Fabio, Joel Beeson, Ron Stein, Bonnie Cahoon, Stéphanie Anderson, Bob Swain, Eric Clark, Dave Brock, Lydia Peterkoch, Phillip Irwin Cooper, Ernest Harada, Susan Kellermann, Kevin Caldwell, Alex Hernandez, Donna Ekholdt, Tammy Gantz, Melissa Martin, Jeff Adkins, Cheryl Baxter, Cameron English, Edmond Alan Forsyth, Bob Gaynor, Don Hesser, Michael Higgins, Kenneth Hughes, Kenneth Knaff, Glean Lewis, Keith McDaniel, Charles McGowan, Regan Patno, Lacy Darryl Phillips, Matt Sergott, Paul Michael Thorpe, Sergio Trujillo, Randy Crenshaw, Jon Joyce, Jerry Whitman, Timothy Burchett, Anthony S. Johnson, Michael Mills, Michael O’Hearn, Sydney Pollack, Ai Wan, Richard Yett.