At the end of last month, the entire soundtrack for Spike Jonze‘s Where the Wild Things Are by Karen O was up to listen to free of charge (Read: New “˜Where The Wild Things Are’ Images Set To The Full Soundtrack). You can still head over there and listen if you have not yet done so (it’s very good), and now you can peek at an equally good little video showcasing the making of said soundtrack.

The feature talks about how Jonze always had Karen O in mind for the music, and how her work with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs always had a that childlike innocence to it. You’ll see the movie’s young star, Max Records, in the studio to do some small voice recordings for the tracks; a peek a what looks like a really beautiful snowy scene using a Daniel Johnston (The Devil and Daniel Johnston) cover song; as well as their use of a children’s choir in some of the recordings.

Click on over to the other side to check out the video, it’s very much worth it, I promise.

The first teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone director Chris Columbus‘s new movie, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief has been released online, and it looks fairly interesting. The property is the first of a new possible franchise based on the five-book Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. It follows a young boy who discovers that he’s the half-human son of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. This sets off an adventure that sees him trying to save his mother while attempting to locate the stolen lightning bolt of Zeus, and even trying to prevent a war among the gods.

The trailer is just a teaser and doesn’t show much, but what you do see is compelling. To sum it up, we see the young boy Percy Jackson (played by Logan Lerman) enters the Empire State Building in New York City and presses a mysterious Omega symbol button in the elevator. This brings him up as high as it will go before magically shooting through the top of the building in a beam of light, and bringing him to the base of Mount Olympus itself.

Click over to the other side to see the trailer and find out who’s part of the massive cast, if you do not know already.

Synecdoche, New York
Directed by Charlie Kaufman
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Tilda Swinton
Rated R
Release Date: October 24, 2008 (limited)

On a personal level, I consider Charlie Kaufman the most talented working screenwriter in Hollywood. I don’t think I am alone in this thought. His resume is one of impressive and envious of anyone in the past however many years you want to use to quantify it. It is one thing to craft a story with intelligent structure and dialogue. It is another thing altogether to create entire universes that have a distinct taste and smell to them. When you sit down to watch a Kaufman scripted film, there is an expected level of chaos and disorder. Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind — all of these films have a wildly imaginative subject and scope, which is exactly the reasons we love them so much.

Synecdoche, New York marks Kaufman’s directorial debut and to the general movie-going public it will amount to little more than a confusing movie with a confusing title. Fans of his work will draw pretty much the same conclusion. On one hand it is an almost unapproachably pretentious movie with a title that is difficult to pronounce (“˜si-NEK-duh-kee’, by the way). On the other hand it is a movie that sort of transcends explanation. That’s not a movie critic cop-out, it just has many, many layers beyond its face value.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Blu-Ray Edition – Unrated
Directed by Judd Apatow
Starring Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Romany Malco
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release Date: September 30, 2008

The 40-Year-Old Virgin is one of the best “Frat Pack” films out there. Steve Carell really stole the spotlight and showed he can be a leading man. The film also showcases one of Paul Rudd‘s best characters and gave us our first real look at Seth Rogen‘s comedic talents. Even with an enormous amount of low-brow humor, the film still manages to connect with real people facing real relationship issues. Despite the implication of the title, the film does not brand virginity as the worst complication in an adult relationship.

The film stars Carell as the title virgin, who works at a large electronics store and is basically a loner. He’s managed to keep this secret all these years, but when his co-workers (Rogen, Rudd, and several other hilarious supporting roles) find out he’s never been with a woman, they make it their mission to get him laid.