'The Memory Police': Reed Morano And Charlie Kaufman Unite For A Movie About The Struggle For Truth

The past four years have seen the leader of the United States government engage in a sustained attack on the truth, so a story about two people who fight to retain their grasp on the truth as it's being slowly wiped out of society altogether feels pretty relevant right now.

Well, that's exactly what we're going to get when director Reed Morano (The Handmaid's Tale) teams up with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (I'm Thinking of Ending Things) to make a film adaptation of The Memory Police, a novel from Japanese writer Y?ko Ogawa. Get more details about the story below.

Deadline reports that Morano will direct and produce and Kaufman will write an adaptation of The Memory Police, which has a pretty killer description:

On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, things have begun to disappear: at first little things: ribbons and then roses. Soon, photographs. However, a rare few are able to remember all that no longer exists – but the Memory Police are determined to make sure that what has been erased, remains forgotten forever. When a young novelist realizes her book editor is one of those able to still remember, she hides him in a room beneath her floorboards. As the world closes in around them, they struggle defiantly to hold onto the truth.

It's safe to say that this combination of filmmakers knows a thing or two about stories regarding the erosion of truth. Morano won an Emmy for directing The Handmaid's Tale, a show about an oppressive regime that subjugates women and tries to make them forget about an era in which they had any agency. She also directed I Think We're Alone Now, which is about the aftermath of a collapsed society. As for Kaufman, he's the writer behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is literally about what happens when memories are erased. Separately, he's also either written or directed films like Being John Malkovich; Adaptation; Synecdoche, New York; and Anomalisa.

This sounds like a fascinating project for the two of them to collaborate on, and now I'm extra curious about who will end up starring in it as the writer and her editor. There's no word yet about when this will get underway for Amazon Studios, but Morano is soon set to collaborate with that company again on The Power, a female-led and -written ten episode thriller series starring Moana actress Auli'i Cravalho.