Where The Wild Studio Heads Are

Those of us who've been waiting six years for Spike Jonze to release a follow-up to Adaptation. might possibly have to wait a little longer. At least three years ago I began reading on IMDB that he had begun working on a movie version of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are with a script written by Dave Eggers. Sounded like a pretty intriguing idea. I then read this article in the New York Times where the book's author explains how he turned down offers for years and years until he met Jonze, back before Jonze had even made Being John Malkovich: "He was the strangest little bird I'd ever seen. He had fluttered into the world of the studios and, could he not be swatted dead, I knew he would manage. I had total faith in him." By some miracle of creation, of course, Jonze managed to make not only one completely uncommercial, off-the-wall movie, but two. Sendak and Jonze met up again later and the movie was on.

As I kept pace on the IMDB message boards, however, it seemed like the studio was getting cold feet and trying to smother Spike's, Dave's, and Maurice's vision. Originally Spike wanted a certain actor to play the part of Max, but the studio didn't like him, and they spent so much time fighting that eventually the kid was too old for the part anyway, and they had to find someone else. I think. The production has been shrouded in secrecy so I can't really be sure. At any rate, after the release date has been pushed back countless times, it now sounds like the studio is finally contemplating just taking the film out of Spike's hands and re-shooting the damn thing. This sounds like a bad idea.

I'm not even talking about the principle of it. I'm just thinking back over film history and trying to count the number of times a studio tampered with a maverick auteur's artistic (albeit commercially unfeasable) vision and managed to make a hit out of the movie. Yeah, I think I'm done counting, because they've never been able to do it. All those Orson Welles movies they took out of his hands and re-shot? Still flopped. Peckinpah's Major Dundee and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid? Still flopped. Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate? Still flopped. The lesson is, even if Spike hasn't made a hit movie, just release it anyway because at least you'll have an artistically daring flop rather than a butchered flop.

And what was Warner Brothers thinking anyway? What kind of movie did they expect Spike to make? Did they even see Adaptation.? He needs to find a studio that will support him 100%, even if that means working with a smaller budget. I mean, Wes Anderson doesn't have these problems, does he?