Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are to Be Entirely Reshot?!
Sabotage!?! There’s incredibly weird, and increasingly depressing, buzz coming off Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, and now Chud reports that execs at Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are considering reshooting the entire $75 million friggin’ movie! This news, of course, comes on top of the rather cool test footage that leaked last weekend, and the rather subdued statement Jonze released yesterday concerning the early footage. There are even wild rumors circulating more and more in the industry that Jonze might take his name off the project, and Devin’s report at Chud doesn’t persuade against that speculation. This is serious, people. Take this excerpt for example…
“Yet I’m hearing that just such a massive reshoot is what is on the table right now. And it’s not because of technical issues, unless you want to consider the lead kid actor and the script technical issues. Sources tell me that the suits at Legendary and Warner Bros are not happy with Max Records, the actor playing Max, the mischievous boy who is crowned King of the Wild Things. Worse than that, they don’t like the film’s tone and want to go back to the script drawing board, possibly losing the Spike Jonze/Dave Eggers script when they do it. Apparently the film is too weird and ‘too scary,’ and the character of Max is being seen as not likable.”
It’s not yet in the open whether Jonze has final cut on the children’s flick. If so, and if this news is well-founded, that could mean a major tug-o-war with execs and possibly end up with Jonze removed from the project altogether. With his former girlfriend, Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, doing the soundtrack and a tight-knit crew, that would be one ballsy move by WB. Do they really want to play knock the hipsters off the island? Jus’ sayin’.
Of course, Jonze’s statement yesterday mentioned no such drama, but he didn’t release an elated in-progress statement like James Cameron just did below, either. Early audience reports from test screenings late last year were prototypically alarming, calling the film “dark,” “not suitable for small children,” complaining about “some desert place” et al. But Maurice Sendak’s book is, as many commenters have smartly pointed out, about monsters, imagination and the free realm where kids play. Sendak is also said to be on board as a consultant to Jonze and co-screenwriter Dave Eggers on the film, and Eggers, the co-founder of McSweeney’s and a literary darling, is even writing a spin-off novel to accompany the film.
This chic house of cards would lend credence to Spike and Co. staying with the project, which has been delayed until 2009 due to reported visual effects difficulties pertaining to the Wild Things’ faces (the Jim Henson Company created their costumes). But, what if, just what if…
More on this (and probable Free Spike Jonze t-shirts) as it develops. In the meantime…
Clip From Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are…But Is It Real?
I was just about to go drown myself in Pabst and orange juice when a tipster sent me an email with the words “Hunter, What Do You Think?” and a link to the following vid. I can’t believe what I just watched. It appears to be a clip from Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, and while the visual effects for the Wild Thing’s face are off, as is the voice work (think Showbiz Pizza: The Movie), this would go along with the reasons we’ve heard for the film being pushed back to 2009. As for the child actor playing the character of Max in the clip, is this the same young actor, Max Records (real name), that we’ve seen in the official still from the film? It’s hard to say, but my gang of Gchatters from coast to coast, including Peter, say it doesn’t look like him. I agree.
So, is the clip a fake? And if so, who would make such a precise fake, clearly as an inside joke, as there is little doubt that most of this was shot on film? A friend in New York says he heard last night that The Kid America Club, a ragtag group of New York hipster party animals who utilize similar wild thing-ish costumes and have considerable resources, may be behind this. What the hell? I don’t buy it, but if it’s fake, those maniacal hipsters are prime suspects as they knowingly operate in the same concentric circles as Jonze (and purportedly had talks with Showtime for their own show a few years ago).
The clip has a voyeuristic, sun-spotted quality and there is an inherent weirdness present that would go along with what sneak preview audiences have reported. The first few seconds even contain music that sounds like it’s taken from Beck’s Odelay, another Jonze bud. I am at once bothered by how unfinished this is and totally digging it. Throw some Karen O on the creative pyre, and I’m beginning to think that Jonze and Dave Eggers, who wrote the screenplay, may have quite a bit of deranged magic in store for us, much to Hollywood’s chagrin. And after There Will Be Blood, this is the only children’s movie suitable for Paul Dano.
But if this clip is ersatz: Greatest Hipster Prank of All Time!
Update: Spike Jonze comments on Wild Things Video Clip.
Lauren Ambrose Replaces Michelle Williams in Where the Wild Things Are
Lauren Ambrose has signed on to voice one of the title roles in Spike Jonze’s big screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s fantasy book Where the Wild Things Are.
Ambrose is replacing Michelle Williams in the role of KW, one of the giant creatures in the land of the Wild Things. In the classic story, a young boy named Max who is transported to a land with mythical creatures. KW and the group of “Wild Things” turn him into their king.
According to Hollywood Reporter:
“…the filmmakers enjoyed working with Williams, but her voice didn’t match their original vision of how the Wild Thing should sound.”
Call me cynical, but doesn’t that sound like the definition of “PR spin”?
The cast also includes Catherine Keener, Max Records, James Gandolfini, Angus Sampson, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara, Rachel Rivera, Melissa Davis and Paul Dano. Where the Wild Things Are is scheduled to hit theaters on October 3rd 2008.