October 2009 is Where the Wild Things Are

Spike Jonze's problematic adaptation of the children's book will hit cinemas in October 2009.

Spike Jonze has had a ton of trouble with the film adaptaion of Where the Wild Things Are. The Being John Malkovich director had originally planned to release the film through Universal in 2001, it didn't work out. He then took his ideas to Warner Bros. who bought the rights to the film and pre-production soon got underway. In April of 2006 Jonze began shooting the film in Australia, a production that lasted a long nine months. The film has been in post-production since February of 2007.



It now appears Warner Bros. wants to go back and re-shoot the majority of the movie. The studio showcased the partially-completed film in front of three test audiences in Pasadena and found that it didn't work out as expected. Warner thinks the tone of Jonze's film is too dark and scary and not suited for children. The studio also has problems with actor Max Records playing the lead role in the film and stated that it's hard to connect with his character. Re-shooting the majority of the film will take months and therefore the release date has been pushed back until October 2009, a date 20 months away.

While I understand Where the Wild Things Are is a children's book and the film should be aimed at a younger audience I'd love to see Jonze's more adult-themed adaptation. The footage of the film released two weeks ago looked great and while it was clearly a work in progress it showed a great amount of potential. Maybe Jonze's original WTWTA will be pressed onto a director's cut DVD someday, you never know.

Haven't seen the clip, check it out below. Keep in mind that this is merely a proof of concept test and doesn't include the real voices or completed effects from the film.

Hopefully Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are is able to go problem-free from this point on and manages to hit theatres in October 2009.

Cheers.

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