With all the recent damage control we’ve seen for The Incredible Hulk, it’s odd that a similarly high profile film plagued with far more incessant and foreboding rumors, Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, hasn’t received similar lip service from its studio or the talent involved. Over at The Playlist, the site’s blogger is snarkily cursing the Internet and geeks for jumping the gun and signaling “the red alert” now that the 2009 film’s assistant editor, James Haygood, has given a calm and collected update on the film’s status. Here’s what Haygood (Fincher’s The Game, Panic Room) told Studio Daily per WTWTA…
Can you talk a little bit more about Where the Wild Things Are?
I just spent the last year on it. It is an amazing project. Like all of Spike’s projects, there’s a complicated birthing process. But it’s a real special, one-of-a-kind thing. That was really fun, and it’s still going. I may go back for a couple months. They’ve gone on hiatus to shoot a couple things and write some stuff, so post-production took a break. I really look forward to seeing how that all comes together.”
Personally, and even if the film remains in Jonze’s hands as Haygood confirms here, I think it’s awesome, important even, for fans of Jonze to be vocal in their support of his artistic vision. Studios, even Warner Bros., listen to the Internet more and more attentively. Don’t hate the game, Playlist. The fact remains that Jonze’s film has been pushed back, way back, and the bad buzz is not just mindless speculation from birds on a wire in tight Star Wars t-shirts; Slashfilm has a finger on the pulse, and Chud based their “film might be entirely reshot” article on inside info. I’m always skeptical when the words “complicated birthing process” are put out there, but at least Haywood’s feelings ring optimistic.
April 26th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
well that’s cool
April 26th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I don’t know, I did not see him confirm anything about this still being a Spike Jonze film. Maybe I have an irrational attachment to wanting people to speak in definite terms, but what he said was that “They’ve gone on hiatus to shoot a couple things and write some stuff…” How does that put to rest the rumors of re-writes and re-shoots, being that re-writes and re-shoots are exactly what he described?
April 26th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Hey just cause I wear a tight SW tee doesn’t mean I’m a fat ass like the majority of fanboys out there!!! =P
April 26th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Did you just call me fat?
April 26th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
“…there’s a complicated birthing process.”
Yah, the tube is wrapped around the babies neck and theres a knife stuck in its head… and Warner Bros finger prints are all over the handle.
April 26th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I really hope the film is “as is” in tersm of Jonzes’ final say. Studios need to learn not to fuck with people who are great at their craft.
And it’s apparent Jonze respects the material here.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I hope jonze doesnt have to compromise one frame of his vision for this film.
April 27th, 2008 at 1:58 am
In Empire Magazine they have done a article about this and have said that they are just doing some re shoots and that it has took so long because of the writers strike.
May 1st, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers are two of the most creative, most talented artists working today. I’m sure the film is brilliant. Sure, it may be a little dark for the kids. But please release it!
May 5th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
if warner bros fuck this up, I hope they know what they have coming to them, Im not gonna just sit here, it makes me so angry, that must mean that its important.
Tell me if there is anything I can do.
Spike, if your out there, anyone from the production, if your out there,
Please get in touch, please make this happen
May 7th, 2008 at 8:09 am
I am a big fan of WB- a company not afraid to turn its reigns over to Kubrick. When I see the WB logo at the beginning of a movie I sometimes get a bit excited b/c I feel they can be risk takers and if they were good enough for Kubrick…
Spike Jonze, like Kubrick, is someonen a bit unorthodox who WB just needs to trust. They KNEW they were going to get something uniquie and exciting with Spike which is why they hired him instead of the hack who did The Cat In The Hat.
So it is not “appropriate for kids.” The book is a classic and b/c of that it will draw an older audience like myself (34) in addition to Jonze fans, teenagers, the audience who watched Being John Malcovich & fans of (possibly dark) fantasy movies- Pans Labrynth, Harry Potter, LOTR. There will definiatly be an enthusiatic audience but it may not be the same audience who went to Cat In The Hat or Alvin & The Chipmunks.
I would venture to say the publicity alone for being wierd & unusual and completely different will be moe valuable than the kindergarten-elementary school audience.