The Point

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Savagery!

Oh my god. Oh my god oh my god oh my god. Dear internet: today I finally understand why you were invented.

I don't know if you guys read Ain't It Cool News at all, but they're a pretty great site for news on upcoming movies and for the past few weeks they've run a few stories about the very exciting adaptation coming up of... wait for it:

Where the Wild Things Are.

This was my favourite kids book. Maybe it was your favourite kids book? All I know is, October 31st 2006 found me at my friends Jen and Derek's place with giant safety pinned-on ears, pajamas, smeared-on whiskers and a stuffed tail I had to hold to keep from dragging. Oh, and a paper crown, of course. They're making it into a movie, Spike Jonze is directing and Dave Eggers is writing. If you've ever met me, you probably know my savage dislike of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but I am genuinely giddy about this movie. I'll just step out of the way and let you see the test clip that leaked a little while ago for yourself (kudos to Movieweb):

Spike Jonze has commented on the clip:

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... - Spike

The monster in the clip is apparently named Carroll, and is going to be voiced by flipping James Gandolfini. Someone working on the movie writing in to AICN this week and said, 'Even in its most incomplete form, WTWTA is startlingly dark, adult and deep, but it’s also the most accurate depiction of childhood and that moment where we begin to lose our naïve thoughtless innocence that I’ve ever seen.'

But... the reason he wrote in is because there are rumours that Warner Brothers is considering completely recasting, reshooting and rewriting this movie. It's breaking my heart. See this clip before it gets pulled down again. Read about it here.

Labels: monsters, movies, youth