Charles Bukowski's POST OFFICE: A Screenplay by Don Carpenter. (1 Viewer)

hank solo

Just practicin' steps and keepin' outta the fights
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I don't recall ever hearing about this before (well except maybe in 'Hollywood'), but it seems that Hackford did at least get as far as having a script prepared for a movie based on Post Office.

Came across this on Abebooks:- (for sale by Jeff Maser)

Charles Bukowski's POST OFFICE: A Screenplay by Don Carpenter.
BUKOWSKI, Charles]. Carpenter, Don.

Book Description: [Los Angeles]: Playboy Productions/New Visions, Inc. (nd). First edition. First edition. 136 pp, printed on rectos only. Fine in original blue plastic covers with printed label. Stamped in blue on the title page is "Playboy Production/New Visions Inc" and "Confidential." Contact information for Taylor Hackford printed lower right. SIGNED by Bukowski on a blank leaf between the title page and first page of text.

Anyone able to access The Bancroft Library (University of California) might be able to check out the drafts from 1976, 1979 & 1982.

Finding Aid to the Don Carpenter Papers, 1950-1993 {PDF}

From 'Hollywood':
He had shown some interest in doing Shipping Clerk and he had even handed me a screenplay but it was so badly done that I told him to forget it.

Anyone ever heard of or seen this?
 
Pleasants talks about it in Visceral Bukowski. he wanted to turn it into an anti-war film (Vietnam, if I remember correctly). Buk said no. Hackford said ok, he'd give up on the anti-War slant. I'll check to see if he mentions a finished screenplay.

EDIT: there's no mention of a finished screenplay of Post Office with an anti-Vietnam angle in Visceral Bukowski.

so, I don't know.
 
I've seen a copy of that before, somewhere. I remember because it was tied in to Playboy, which seemed a bit, I dunno, obvious or something. "Hey, it's Bukowski, maybe Hefner will bite..."

Maybe in an auction catalog? Could have been eBay, but I don't think so.

I think reading would be a letdown though.
 
I don't know what to make of those pages. It seemed to be almost good up until the bartender says, "how's the poetry coming?"

It's a difficult task, writing a screenplay for a book, because you can get most of the pages right, but only a few wrong and fuck up the whole enchilada (see: Factotum).

But I do appreciate seeing the pages, Dr. Roni.
 
In my experience, you don't get around to numbering scenes until you're ready to prepare a budget and go into pre-production. This might have gotten pretty far along in the process towards being made.
 

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