Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are -- Wild Thing Pics

Slashfilm has some images from the Spike Jonze film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, showing for the first time the eponymous Wild Things.

WTWTA is a classic children's book -- I doubt there are many of my generation or younger who don't have a strong affection for it. And everything I've seen and heard about the adaptation sounds fantastic. There was a brief scare after Jonze turned in his first cut -- it was deemed too scary for kids and too weird for adults. This worried the studio. But it excited me.

Even though WTWTA is an extremely short book (only 48 pages, and averaging a single sentence per two-page spread), it sounds like Jonze used that as a starting-off point to create what could be an equally classic, timeless film. Bizarrely, even though there is limited source material and I expect (and even desire) deviations, my expectations are higher for this than any other adaptation in recent memory.

Loved Jonze's work to date. He's just weird enough to pull this off. Fingers crossed that October 2009 it turns out to be what I hope it is.

2 comments:

TheGamut said...

The only thing I've seen from Jonze is Being John Malkovich. I've never read Where the Wild Things Are. I've seen the book cover, and that's about it. Is the book strange like BJM (but assuming not nearly as mature in content)?

Dorkman said...

Next time you're in Borders or Barnes & Noble, take 5-10 minutes and read Where the Wild Things Are. It's a book I think everyone should experience.

It's not a book that's as weird as Malkovich, but it is a very quirky and unique book. That means having a quirky and unique director is exactly what it calls for, which is why Jonze is an exciting choice. If they'd hired Chris Columbus or Ron Howard, I wouldn't be nearly as interested.