You may not know his name, but you know his movies. Charlie Kaufman was the screenwriter for the critical and commercial hits Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Adaption. Now Kaufman has written and directed his first feature length stop-motion movie called Anomalisa with co-director Duke Johnson, and Paramount Pictures has just acquired the rights.

Kaufman, who was also script consultant on Kung Fu Panda 2, unveiled Anomalisa at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4th and was met with very positive reviews. The Telegraph rated it five stars and described it as “upsettingly brilliant”, and GQ expressed that “Charlie Kaufman delivers another work of weird genius.”

The film follows a celebrated, motivational speaker travelling the country, changing the lives of countless people. But in the course of transforming others, his life has become hollow and meaningless. But when a girl’s voice pierces through the veil of nothingness, she fills him with such a rush of “aliveness” which wills him to abandon everything and everyone, including his own family, and escape with her to a better life. The voice cast includes David Thewlis (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Machinist), and Tom Noonan (Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York).

Thanks to Paramount’s purchase of the film after its showing at the Toronto International Film Festival, Anomalisa will be released on December 30th in LA and New York with plans for a much wider release in the future. In the meantime, take a look at the behind the scenes video below:

What do you think of Charlie Kofman’s work? Are you interested in seeing Anomalisa?

Edited by: Kelly Conley