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I?ve been excited for the next Charlie Kaufman picture, Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind, ever since I heard the storyline. Unfortunately, even though production wrapped up quite some time ago and the movie was scheduled to be released this summer, the opening has been pushed back to early 2004. Sadness.

For those of you who, like me, can?t wait that long, I share with you a link to a first draft of the screenplay which has been floating the internet for a little while now:

To read it, Click here.

The story is classic Kaufman style; most of it takes place in the mind of one of the characters. On top of that, it is told out of order, requiring you to piece it together like a puzzle. Basically, it?s about a couple who decide to go through a procedure to have their memories of each other erased due to the demise of their relationship and the emotional strain it lays on them. Part way through the procedure, when the worst of the memories are erased, the man (Joel) decides that he doesn?t want to go through with it anymore. However, by this point one of the doctors administering the procedure has become infatuated with the woman (Clementine) and uses his knowledge of Joel and Clementine?s relationship to woo her. Kaufman also plays with the idea of fate and destiny throughout the screenplay as the paths of the two main characters continue to cross and they go through the procedure multiple times.

So, check it out. Especially if you?ve enjoyed any of Kaufman?s other films (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Human Nature). You won?t be let down. And if you do like Kaufman, you might want to read as well the screenplay adaptation that Kaufman wrote for Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly (a great book by the way); that script is also on the page linked to above.