So, for a while now rumors have been plaguing Spike Jonze’s film adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, a children’s book beloved by me and countless others for years and years. The idea of adapting this mischievous, dark, and wonderful book is a little daft to begin with, and it sounds like it’s been no easy task. Filmed in 2006, it started making the rounds to test audiences last winter. First I read that no one liked the boy cast as Max (too mean-spirited and unlikeable). Then I read that children in a December screening actually left the theater crying and terrified. I also read that the actual Wild Things were giving the F/X crews serious problems. Then in June it was confirmed that Jonze was spending the month reshooting a significant amount of the film. The release date’s been pushed back from fall of this year to fall of 2009. A few weeks ago the LA Times published this article giving a full account of the movie’s troubled history and where it currently stands. I hope they can pull it all together. It has the potential to be an amazing film, but I worry about too much interference from a marketing department looking for a huggable kids’ holiday movie.
Tag: spike jonze