Huhbuhwha?

I would write anything if someone offered to pay me enough and it were legal. I just want to establish that right now. What I'm about to tell you is a strange tale of Hollywood, a well-known occurrence within the walls of that establishment, but not so much outside in middle America. THR made note of it this summer, and Deadline gives us another example today: Charlie Kaufman (he of Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) did two weeks of script work on Kung Fu Panda 2 while Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg, Kicking and Screaming) just did a polish on Madagascar 3.
Yeah, feels a bit like that, huh? Like I said, this happens a lot, as good writers who have a propensity to make independent, non-mainstream movies also tend to not get paid all that much. Are we going to be struck by Kung Fu Panda 2's sudden shift toward meta-awareness that speaks about human isolation? Is Madagascar 3 going to feature morose slacker academics who are wickedly smart but incredibly punchable? Probably not. Chances are we'll never know that they were there in the first place. What this reminds me is that everybody, even the artists I revere, find themselves working a day job at some point. Sadly for me, even at the worst for people like Kaufman and Baumbach, they're still making movies.

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