Where the Wild Things Are - everything you didn't think you wanted to know

I recently read an article in the New York Times magazine about how Spike Jonze got into the business, its an inspiring story about a guy bursting with creativity filming whatever he thinks is interesting and word spread. Previously directing guerilla skate videos, to music videos, to anti-hollywood films like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, he now is doing his first big budget treat in Where the Wild Things Are. Here's a beast of a video (38min.) from the BBC that gives you an idea of what kind of person we are dealing with in Spike Jonze. Well worth it.



Big money means big pressure from the studio to create something that can be easily digested by a mass audience. Jonze was given a longer leash then most, because of his "indie" cred, but when the studio demanded a rough cut of the film they were scared (as were some children in pre-screenings) by what they saw. A fight ensued where Jonze almost left the film, but after conceding to make extremely minor changes (basically adding one scene and taking away another) the film is now complete and set to be released next week. Here Jonze talks about Where the Wild Things Are, his concept for the film, working with Dave Eggers and more.



This is some behind the scenes footage of Maurice Sendak, the illustrator and author of the original children's book, talking about his story vs Jonze vision.

Where the Wild Things Are - Featurette Maurice Sendak
by ohmygore

In case you don't know who Dave Eggers is, he is a writer/publisher who is very similar to Jonze in the book world. He has written work such as his memoir A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and a traveling story about frustrating generosity in You Shall Know our Velocity. He has founded his own independent publishing company called McSweeney's. He is also known for his non-profit work, which has resulted in funding tours that included musical artists such as Death Cab for Cutie and Sufjan Stevens. Here, he and Jonze, are faced with the difficult task of interpreting the scarce dialogue and artwork of the WTWTA children's book into a full-length screenplay, which has been released as the novel The Wild Things. Hear his thoughts in this video interview.


















Here is an interview with WTWTA production designer K.K. Barrett. Barrett has worked with some of the hottest directors around (including Sophia Coppola, and Michel Gondry) to help bring their films to life. Here he talks about his history and WTWTA's unique vision.



A friend of mine, who has a child of his own, told me he had a feeling this might be the first great children's film since The Neverending Story. He just might be right.

Official HD trailer for the film.