Whatever happened to Charlie Kaufman?

I was just watching what might be my favorite movie of all time, Synecdoche New York, which is written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, writer of movies such as Being John Malkovich, the Oscar-winning Adaptation, and the critically beloved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which starred Kate Winslett and Jim Carrey, who worked for a song just so he could say he did a movie with Kaufman.

Going by critical reviews, you might assume Kaufman was doing fine. Roger Ebert named Synecdoche the best movie of the decade, for example, and it make a lot of critics' shortlists for the same spot.

But here's the funny thing- no matter what source you check, it is nearly impossible to find any information on what Kaufman is doing right now, and what, if any, his future projects are. His fan website, BeingCharlieKaufman, mostly just updates to mention critics that have put his movies in "best of the decade" lists.

The disturbing thing is, Synecdoche failed to make any money. IMDB shows it cost 21 million, and only made 3 domestically. There were reports that it failed to find a distributor at Cannes despite its nomination for the Palm d'Or, and that the backers took a loss on it. While a successful screenwriter, Kaufman has said he is not independently wealthy; if he had an even relatively smaller stake in a money-losing 21 million dollar production, he could be in debt for a lot of money.

Now, it would be rash to say Kaufman is in trouble at this point. But its surprising to note that in an age where people in Hollywood literally can't go to a restaurant without it being mentioned online, and where there are entire websites such as IMDB devoted to carefully following the lives of even the most minor writers and directors, there has almost literally not been a word written about Kaufman in about a year now. Not his whereabouts, not his upcoming projects, nothing.

Does anyone have any news on him? What happened?

UPDATE: Kaufman is down but not out! Here's an update from Mick, operator of BeingCharlieKaufman.com:

When Synecdoche came out, Charlie was pretty bummed by the mixed reviews for the film. He said a few times he might quit screenwriting, but since then he has said he's working on something new. One or two other people have told me he's currently working on a new script, too, but I have no idea what it's about or what it's called. No idea when we might get more info about it, either. Sometimes it takes him years to finish a screenplay, so it might be a while before we get more details.

Great to hear. If he quit, it would be a major loss to modern cinema.