Photos: Getty Images; Courtesy of Warner Bros.
Is Spike Jonze about to get fired from Where the Wild Things Are? Rampant speculation on the Web suggests things might be getting tense at Warner Bros. owing to the adaptation of Maurice Sendak's book Jonze wrote with Dave Eggers. According to /Film, recent test screenings of the film yielded poor responses, and Cinematic Happening Under Development reports that Warner Bros. is panicking because the $75 million production looks "uncommercial," and wants to completely reshoot the film.
To which we say: Warner Bros., you are being morons.
Way back when we read this script in October, we thought the film might be something special, and Warner's reportedly ham-handed response is confirming our suspicions. After all, the script we read, if filmed properly, would be dark, gripping, and far richer and more wondrous than your typical children's film — exactly the kind of movie that would make a studio pull its hair out. Reports from test screenings — at which viewers are being disqualified from the comment pool if they have ever seen a Spike Jonze movie or read a Dave Eggers book — confirm that Warners is treating Wild Things as if it were a Veggie Tales movie or something.
Learn from the example of Pan's Labyrinth, Warners! A dark and mysterious folktale for adults can still make money and win awards. We know you're panicking because you spent a lot of money on this already. But spending a lot more money and making a half-assed movie without Spike Jonze is not going to help. You hired the guy; you green-lit his script; let him make the movie you hired him to make.
Spike Jonze Responds to Where The Wild Things Are Video Clip [/Film]
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE... BEING COMPLETELY RESHOT? [Cinematic Happenings Under Development]
Earlier: We've Got Dave Eggers's and Spike Jonze's Script for ‘Where the Wild Things Are’
Email
Link
Print
How A Navy Officer Brought Home Iraqi Art
A Search Party for New Music
David Edelstein on Reprise and More
Boeing-Boeing Comes Out of Storage
