SUBMITTED BY Timbo

March 17, 2004 — Excuse the ominous headline, but according to AP, it's true -- Charlie Kaufman, screenwriter, can make things happen.

Jim Carrey only needed to hear three words to know he wanted to act in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" -- and they weren't "twenty million dollars."

Carrey, who agreed to drop his usual megasalary to play a dejected man who has a broken love affair erased from his brain, was lured to the film with the phrase "by Charlie Kaufman."

"I was given the script. They just said, `Charlie Kaufman.' And I'm like, `OK, where do I sign?'" Carrey told The Associated Press. "I mean, it's just to be part of his legacy. It's like a Hitchcock kind of thing, where you just want to go, `Yeah, I did one of his movies, man!'"

In an industry notorious for giving writers short shrift, Carrey's remarks reflect the unusual power and influence Kaufman wields.

He's never even had a major box-office hit, but the Hollywood scribe has distinguished himself with a trippy brand of comically gloomy storytelling that often blurs the lines between reality and fantasy.

Read the rest at the link below.