We're a little bit late to this one but, you know, the world is a big place to keep track of and sometimes while we're all looking ove there somewhere we can miss things a little closer to home. Anyway ...
Bad, bad news for fans of Spike Jonze, who have been anxiously awaiting his long in production adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Thingz Are. According to a report at CHUD, the suits at Warner Brothers are unhappy with what Jonze has turned in and are mulling over the possibility of completely scrapping his version and starting again from scratch with a new lead actor and new Dave Eggers-less script. Apparently there are concerns that Jonze's version is a bit too weird and not kid-friendly enough to which I say, "Errrr, yeah. Have you not read much Sendak not to mention Eggers, or watched any of Jonze's previous films?" These are not the right people to hire and not the right book to adapt if what you're looking for is safe, kid friendly pablum, they just aren't. Would Warners just flush away the seventy five mil they've spent so far? They might if they think re-doing it would make them two hundred and if they do they'll be flushing a good bit of Jonze's future career down the toilet along with their money ...
Wow! How Did I miss this? This is terrible news. Even more so considering it sounds like Jonze was doing what he should have been doing. Turning an off-kilter children's book into a puzzler of a film. Dang. It could have been great.
You know what's even worse news? That Spike JONZE's last name was mispelled....repeteadly.
Yeah - just like execs today would think films like The Dark Crystal are "too weird" for kids to enjoy. Stupid.
I'm sure it will reach DVD though. Studios now a days see that people are interested in these situations and would gladly pay for it. Just like The Exorcist 4.
It's unlikely that it'll get released on DVD because right now the effects are totally unfinished. They couldn't release the film without spending at least 20-30 million on CG work and they wouldn't do that for a version that was scrapped and thrown away.
Oooo, deuling Director's Cut dvd's!
I'm still waiting for the Hershbeigel cut of THE INVASION.
Sorry but this story doesn't wash with me. It doesn't make sense and sounds suspiciously close to some "insidery" griping I read a few months ago. It sounds like someone might be screwing with the Jonze.