Tuesday, April 15, 2008

"Where the Wild Things Are" first look

Spike Jonze is directing a live-action version of Maurice Sendak's book, Where the Wild Things Are. The beloved children's book revolves around a boy named Max, whose imagination transforms his bedroom into a mystical land where active beasts roam.

Recently a test clip of the film leaked online and reaction was less than favorable. See the footage here. Viewer feedback prompted Jonze to release this statement:

This 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...

Bizarro clip and viewer feedback aside, I look forward to seeing one of my favorite kid's books come alive on screen. The stills look amazing and it can't be as bad as the new Star Wars movies, right?