Some of you may be very aware and excited about the Where the Wild Things Are movie being made by Spike Jonze. Some of you might not even have the slightest clue what Where the Wild Things Are is, which would make me feel very old. Damn kids and your child explorers and sponges-wearing pants — what is that about? Either way, there are some rough roads on the horizon for the adaptation of the classic children’s book.
For those of you who are clueless — Where the Wild Things Are follows the young boy Max who is sent to his room by his mom where he then creates this fantastical world of monsters where he is King. It was originally a book by Maurice Sendak and is being adapted into a feature film starring Catherine Keener, Benicio Del Toro, Forest Whitaker, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O’Hara, and James Gandolfini. The film, which is to be a mixture of voice roles, live-action puppetry, and computer animation, was orignally going to be released in 2000-2001, but was shelved. Then it was moved to 2008, but now, according to /Film, it was pushed to October 16, 2009.
The new 2009 release date would make sense if what CHUD reported last week is true — that Warner Bros. had become rather uncomfortable with where the film is going. The suits don’t like the kid playing Max (Max Records) and thought that he might come off as unlikable and that the film was becoming too dark and scary for a “kids” movie. WB is currently thinking about actually scrapping the entire $75 Million movie and RESHOOTING it to make it more kid-friendly. There’s no confirmation at this time about the reshoot, but that far-off release date makes it seem likely to happen.
Spike Jonze is a great director (he also co-write the screenplay with Dave Eggers) and from the images I have seen and from this VERY early test footage hosted at MovieWeb (it’s here below, along with Jonze’s official statement on it), matched with the memories of my childhood, I was incredibly excited about this movie. Surely most of the really big fans of the book are probably a lot older now and an older, darker turn on it would be more successful than any cheesy kids movie they could do with it; hell I think it was BORN to grow with us and become a great Adult Fantasy that just happens to involve a kid!
If this reshoot happens, it would be a bad, bad decision… mark my words. Join with me as I beg Warner to stop being ridiculous, REMEMBER what happened with Exorcist: The Beginning or whatever that remake-prequel nonsense was; let Spike Jonze do his dance and watch it shine.
EARLY TEST FOOTAGE
Director Spike Jonze’s official response to the leaked test footage:That was a very early test with the sole purpose of just getting some footage to Ben our vfx (visual effects) supervisor to see if our vfx plan for the faces would work. The clip doesn’t look or feel anything like the movie, the Wild Thing suit is a very early cringy prototype, and the boy is a friend of ours Griffin who we had used in a Yeah Yeah Yeahs video we shot a few weeks before. We love him, but he is not in the actually film…Oh and that is not a wolf suit, its a lamb suit we bought on the internet. Talk to you later… – Spike
I 100% agree with you on the fact that the movie should take a more serious and darker approach because the fans that knew and loved the original can identity with that aspect more than something too bubbly and cautious.
Thanks for the much needed update on Where The Wild Things Are.
Wow, this is unfortunate news. I am really looking forward to this movie, as I loved the book as a child, and still love it today. The think the movie should be dark. Even as a kid I picked up on the dark undertones of the book, and if they make it a slapsticky family fun film, that would just suck. It should be done in the same vein as a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory, which itself had dark undertones. I hope they dont ruin this, im still really looking forward to it. Test footage looked awesome btw. If its gonna look better than this as Spike says it is, im happy.
[...] As many of you will recall, Where the Wild Things Are was this movie. We saw some little pieces from it that amazed us; it looked exactly how it should have looked; a very talented director was attached; it was perfect. Then the rumors started flooding in, and if you’re not familiar with them all, feel free to check out my very first Geeks of Doom article here — ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ To Be Released October 2009. [...]
[...] For those of you unfamiliar with all of the drama, Jonze was working on a darker, live-action film adaptation of the fabled children’s book because most fans are likely to be in their 20’s, but when an extremely early screening made little kiddies cry, studios were pissed and rumors started swirling that the film would be scrapped and completely re-shot. It was also reported that Spike Jonze would be replaced and basically that the studio would now make a kid-friendly movie. Many people plead with the studio to keep Jonze’s version, including stars of the film (see, ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ To Be Released October 2009). [...]
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
[...] Geeks of Doom [...]
I 100% agree with you on the fact that the movie should take a more serious and darker approach because the fans that knew and loved the original can identity with that aspect more than something too bubbly and cautious.
Thanks for the much needed update on Where The Wild Things Are.
Jen
Wow, this is unfortunate news. I am really looking forward to this movie, as I loved the book as a child, and still love it today. The think the movie should be dark. Even as a kid I picked up on the dark undertones of the book, and if they make it a slapsticky family fun film, that would just suck. It should be done in the same vein as a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory, which itself had dark undertones. I hope they dont ruin this, im still really looking forward to it. Test footage looked awesome btw. If its gonna look better than this as Spike says it is, im happy.
[...] As many of you will recall, Where the Wild Things Are was this movie. We saw some little pieces from it that amazed us; it looked exactly how it should have looked; a very talented director was attached; it was perfect. Then the rumors started flooding in, and if you’re not familiar with them all, feel free to check out my very first Geeks of Doom article here — ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ To Be Released October 2009. [...]
[...] For those of you unfamiliar with all of the drama, Jonze was working on a darker, live-action film adaptation of the fabled children’s book because most fans are likely to be in their 20’s, but when an extremely early screening made little kiddies cry, studios were pissed and rumors started swirling that the film would be scrapped and completely re-shot. It was also reported that Spike Jonze would be replaced and basically that the studio would now make a kid-friendly movie. Many people plead with the studio to keep Jonze’s version, including stars of the film (see, ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ To Be Released October 2009). [...]