Anyone remember the children’s book Where the Wild things Are by Maurice Sendak? This 1963 book was by far my most favorite book when I was a child.
(Trailer Updated)
I remember being scared yet intrigued by the characters in the book. If you don’t recall, the story is about a little boy named Max who gets into a bit of trouble so he is sent to his room without supper. Max seems Max dreams about being whisked away off to a magical world wearing his distinctive wolf suit costume. Along the way he meets a number of fantastical creatures living in a forest. Max becomes the leader of the group of ferocious looking monsters. The movie is being directed by acclaimed music video director Spike Jonze. See the bottom of the post for the It stars newcomer Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo and Lauren Ambrose and is voiced by James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, and Forest Whitaker.
The screenplay is co-written by Jonze and Dave Eggers, author of the bestselling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
Dave eggers has created a novel based on the screenplay and the original Sendak book. The book will be available at the same time the movie is being released in October. For kicks the book will be available in an optional “fur cover” edition which I am personally looking forward to getting.
Eggers spoke with the Montreal Gazette in November 2007. Eggers talked about how the book was conceived and shed some light on some other details.
When we were in the middle of [the screenplay], Maurice [Sendak] called me and somebody had brought up the idea of there being a novel, too, and he asked me if I would do it.
We all really get along - Spike and Maurice and I always had the same goals for the movie, and the novelization, too, which was to sort of reinstitute the dangerous elements of that book. Because when it came out, it was pretty controversial and some librarians didn’t like it, and child psychologists thought it was, you know, unhelpful. And it was really morally ambiguous in a way. It showed a kid sort of disobeying his mother and acting crazy - which all kids do, but you still don’t see much of in children’s literature. It’s too often, I think, washed clean.
Spike and Maurice and I just decided we needed to make the book wild and dangerous again and really unexpected. So the movie is really unlike anything anyone will expect, I think. And the book is different from both of them, actually. It has Max and Max going to an island, but in the book I’m able to [develop] the storyline also - as a book can always do. You have a lot more room to play with. The book is 150 words, the movie is 90 minutes, the novel gets to be a whole different level.
Amazon.com describes the book to be based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay cowritten with Spike Jonze — is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control. His father is gone, his mother is spending time with a younger boyfriend, his sister is becoming a teenager and no longer has interest in him. At the same time, Max finds himself capable of startling acts of wildness: he wears a wolf suit, bites his mom, and can’t always control his outbursts. During a fight at home, Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicated when Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Funny, dark, and alive, The Wild Things is a timeless and time-tested tale for all ages.
Which monster was your favorite?
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