Archive for the 'Where The Wild Things Are' Category
According to Spike Jonze’s younger brother, music producer Sam Spiegel, who confirmed it in an e-mail to music blog The Playlist, banshee-voiced Yeah Yeah Yeahs front woman Karen O is writing “pretty much the whole” soundtrack to Jonze’s forthcoming film version of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.
With a gigantic budget of a speculated $80 million, the fiercely protective Maurice Sendak is enthused about the movie adaptation by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers.
‘Where The Wild Things Are’ will feature the voices of James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Forest Whitaker, Paul Dano, Catherine O’ Hara and Lauren Ambrose who recently replaced Michelle Williams.
Audience reviews from surprisingly early test screenings described the $80 million film as unapologetically melancholic, beautifully strange, and very ‘adult’.
Continuing on with the ‘Wild Things’ posts - here’s a leaked clip. Hmm, not sure if this is real or not. Max looks completely different from the photo that was released several months ago. Anyway, check it out…
An ‘insider’ reports: “I wish I could be more specific, but because of how I saw it, I can’t offer any sort of real review. I can tell you that there’s something odd about the clip above. The Wild Thing in that clip is Carrol, played in the version I saw by James Gandolfini. That is most definitely NOT Gandolfini’s voice in that clip though. But it’s a very finished piece of film, because in the rough footage, none of the Wild Things have articulated faces. The costumes were all built to have immobile features that would be replaced in post-production by CGI, and it looks like this clip has had that work done on it…”
Addendum: Slashfilm caught up with Jonze to hear whether or not the clip was actually from the film or some kind of elaborate hoax by some insanely talented fanboys.
“…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…”
The film has been pushed back until 2009. Word in the hills is that Warner Bros is extremely unhappy with the finished product. Test screening audiences have complained that the film is too adult and even too scary for children. One audience member wrote:
“I don’t think it’s for young children. They’d probably like the video version from ‘The Children’s Circle’ better.”
Another test screener writes:
“And some kids at my screening began to cry and asked their parents to leave, so that should give you an idea.” “The things are not cute. Max comes off a bit weird and off-putting ‘He slaps his mom!’ and he seems confused and not charming at all.” “No rumpus, no big set pieces, no ’state-of-the-art’ lucrative sequences just some running around on some desert place and thats that.”
Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is my favorite book of all time. So much so, my next tattoo will be one based on the book… I just haven’t decided the what and where for right now. But I digress. As has been reported in this blog before, there is a movie in the works - and the image above, is the first that has made its way onto the internet! Although the photo doesn’t reveal too much - the character of Max looks friggn amazing!
via Wikipedia
Where the Wild Things Are is a film adaptation of a Maurice Sendak picture book of the same name. The film will be directed by Spike Jonze and written by Dave Eggers. It was originally set for release from Universal, and a teaser of the film was attached to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, a vehicle from the same studio. However, disagreements with Jonze led him to take the film to Warner Bros. The movie is expected to combine live action and CGI.
The film’s target release date is October 3, 2008. Filming began in April of 2006 at Central City Studios in Melbourne, Australia. Some location filming happened in the Queensland rain forest early in 2007.
(Central City Studios which is owned by my employers! Holy fuck I gotta get a tour of the place!)
Max from the Maurice Sendak children’s book ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. Max will also be my new tattoo in the weeks to come!
With the year coming to an ultimate close, I sat back and kinda reflected on many of the events that have unfolded throughout 2006. Whilst life has thrown its share of misery my way throughout the past 12 months - I still look back at ‘06 with fond memories and a slice of time in my life that in hindsight, has allowed me to shed some baggage and put an end to some chapters in the life and times of JR.
A couple of weeks ago I was feeling creatively stifled and unhappy about an employment situation that I found myself in. But I bit the bullet (hard) and made the correct decision to move on from there for the sake of my sanity. Not wanting to extinguish the fire that lights my creativity, I resigned from there and I feel so much better for it.
Where The Wild Things Are filming in Australia. Where are the wild things? On the Mornington Peninsula, as the first shots of secretive big-budget film Where The Wild Things Are reveal.
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