Maybe Warners should look into something called DAILIES. just a thought.

"imaination"

imagination

He's clearly talented...but, I have to wonder, when he was doing his Public Nudity 90 year old woman bit in Jackass 2, was that the style part or the smarts part?

Maybe they can ask Paul Schrader if Renny Harlin is available.

This is 2008. We'll eventually see all of it on DVD.

Like actionman said, that clip that got everyone all crazy isn't from the movie, it's very early test footage. The movie will not look like that at all.

But I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if WB wanted to fuck with the vision of a great talent like Spike. They're a studio afterall, that's what they do. Hire artists to do something and then get all pissed off when they do exactly that.

AICN has an e-mail from Spike where he says that was only test footage

This movie was already boring the day they greenlighted it. Zzz...

No one noticed that Drew at AICN brought this up last week?

"He's clearly talented...but, I have to wonder, when he was doing his Public Nudity 90 year old woman bit in Jackass 2, was that the style part or the smarts part?"

Well...here goes...the style part of the old lady public nudity stunt is the fact that the make-up/costume that he's wearing is absolutely amazing and utterly convincing; if you're not in on the joke, there's no way you'd ever know it's a young dude in that get up. The smarts of the piece is the way he fools people into believing that he's really an old woman, and the way he gets people to help him out (covering up with a table cloth, asking if he needs help, etc.)

I know it's a stretch but I just think Jonze is brilliant, always have, always will.

And for the record, both of the Jackass movies are completely hilarious.

jeff, does this conflict with drew's story on AICN yesterday (i.e. is this a reaction to the leaked "footage"), or is it acknowledged that that was test footage AND the studio is unhappy with the production as a whole?

Oh jeez, the movie doesn't come out till '09 and I can see we are already being subjected to weekly lazy Wild Things furry jokes.

Just what we need--another CGI monster fest like the one served up in "I am Legend". I argue the puppets don't look any less fake. And from a child's perspective isn't that what the wild things would look like? I say "let well enough alone". Those re-shoot movies never work out. Let Jonze's version live.

I saw the film a couple of months ago and the lead child actor is hardly the problem. In fact, I thought he did a superb job. My beef with the film is that Jonze gives a "realistic" look to the world of the Wild Things as opposed to a "fantastical" look. This actually might be appealing to a lot of viewers, but I found it somewhat lacking and decidedly un-magical. Granted, what I saw was still rough and without any CGI (which, I hate to say, would drastically improve the film).

As for the early "test footage" clip that popped up online, I can vouch that it's not part of the actual movie. However, the version of the film I saw is identical to the tone and manner of that clip, so don't expect something all that different. Aside from that, the story is executed very well and hits all the right emotional notes. They just need to improve the visuals. And the kid is terrific, so he surely can't be part of the behind-the-scenes problem.

"the smarts of the piece is the way he fools people into believing that he's really an old woman, and the way he gets people to help him out (covering up with a table cloth, asking if he needs help, etc.)"

Well, anybody can do that. I think that public disturbance is the least of his skillz.

But I love love love the tone of even the test footage. I agree that CGI would look just as implausible and worse, less immersive. Just the live action of the test moved me. It's no more plushie porn, which is a simple and cynical a way of looking at it, than if it were CG porn. I hope they let Jonze do his thing. That's why they hired him.

"They just need to improve the visuals."

Really? A Spike Jonze film needs improvement with its visuals?

I thought the test footage was perfect; the druggy, late-in-the-day, Southern California, Michael Ritchie lighting; the disembodied voice of the monster; the scrub-brush locale; the affectless, fickle little boy, like something out of a Harmony Korine film. If I new the film was going to be 90 minutes of THAT, I would be excited. But it won't. Because everybody wants the regular fries. C'est la vie.

But seriously, who is the asshole, THE ASSHOLE, at the studio who hires Spike Jonze and then gets upset when he does what he has always done, which is be totally predictable in his unpredictability. I mean, are the buffoons who work at the studios really this dumb, or are they engaged in some kind of post-modern prank where to deviate from the script of how a "suit" is supposed to behave would render a hole in the fabirc of existence? If they wanted Harry Potter then they should've hired Chris Columbus. This whole debacle is reason one million why the people who work in Hollywood - the d-boys and girls, the vp's of this and that, the producers, etc. - are what is wrong with the movies that are made. It's not the actors or the writers or overindulged auteurs, it's the black-clad mega-tanned nincompoops who went to NYU Law school who mistake ambition and the ability to suck ass with creativity and imagination.

The Chud piece kind of focused on story issues rather than CGI (including going so far as to suggest WB might trash Eggers script altogether) with screeners calling the film "too dark, weird and scary" (in other words, interesting)and the main character "not likeable enough".

Because god knows that the paint-by-numbers Robert Mckee screenwriting template says that characters MUST BE likeable.

If anyone from Warners is reading, I am available for a rewrite. What this film needs is some fart jokes and a couple of Wild Things getting hit in the nuts, lol.

This entire thing is totally and 100% baffling. How does this kind of thing continue to happen? $70+ million on the line and you'd think someone, somewhere would actually READ the script, watch some previous work, talk about the project, watch dailes, get progress reports... is any of this sinking in!!??? I mean, good grief! Is it just me here or are we hearing more and more of this kind of crazy, last-minute crap lately?

How is it ever a good idea to spend twice as much money and film a whole new movie? Has that ever produced a better end result?

Well said, MilkMan. The 'uncreatives' who run the
studios have managed to condense all studio
films into a handful of boilerplate blueprints
- Frat-Boy Grossout Comedy - Tween Girl Chick flick - Teen/Girl/Young Woman Chick Flick - PG-13
Horror - R-rated Torture Porn Horror - Harry
Potter Wannabe - Crappy Tv Remake ...and of course the bread-and-butter CGI Bloated Summer
Tentpole.
The inmates no longer run the asylum. The
accountants do.

What inquiring minds want to know is where and how George Prager and Jeff Wells ever heard of plushie porn in the first place.

Is this stuff common knowledge among hipsters living on the coasts?

Yes.

"How is it ever a good idea to spend twice as much money and film a whole new movie? Has that ever produced a better end result?"

Woody Allen's SEPTEMBER.

This looks like the modern answer to the 70's creepiest kid film, The Little Prince.

Maybe there should be a contest to predict who does the reshoots on WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.
Brian Levant? Shawn Levy? Jessie Nelson?

To the above list I forgot to add David Dobkin's name.

I say bravo to Warner Bros. for having the balls to scrap an entire $75 million movie and start over. Why let some weirdo hipster like Spike Jonze ruin what could be a perfectly mainstream and likable family film with his subversive artistic ambitions? If we're lucky they'll even shitcan the mascot suits and CGI the entire thing!!!!!

Heaven forbid a studio releases a weird or scary kid film. Don't want to upset those families.

Looks like a sweet episode of HR Puffenstuff

Is this a sequel to that movie with Denise Richards? Oh, wait... ;-)

"Maybe there should be a contest to predict who does the reshoots on WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.
Brian Levant? Shawn Levy? Jessie Nelson?"

Tim Hill or Frederick du Chau. They're good with animals.