Debate Over Alleged ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ Clip

Just a few days ago we saw the released music video for “Flashing Lights”, where musically Kanye West apes Justin Timberlake, while visually Spike Jonze apes Michael Mann and Scorsese - with a Playboy model thrown in for good measure. The follow-up buzz for Spike Jonze this weekend is over a leaked, rough, and debatably authentic clip from his adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. After making the rounds briefly on Friday evening, the clip was pulled down, but has since made scatter-shot appearances. If legitimate, the clip features the screen debut of Max Records - the actor, as Max, playfully beating an 8 to 9 foot tall Wild Thing with a stick, then putting his robot moves on display.

Previously: Vulture reviewed the Jonze/Dave Eggers written script. Includes the first officially released image. Note the differences in Max’s outfit between the still and the video. Is it even the same Max? Is the clip from an earlier screen test?)

Video (for as long as it lasts):

As to the veracity of the video clip, Moriarty from AICN has seen very rough cuts of the film, and had this to say on Sunday:

I wish I could be more specific, but because of how I saw it, I can’t offer any sort of real review. I can tell you that there’s something odd about the clip above. The Wild Thing in that clip is Carrol, played in the version I saw by James Gandolfini. That is most definitely NOT Gandolfini’s voice in that clip though. But it’s a very finished piece of film, because in the rough footage, none of the Wild Things have articulated faces. The costumes were all built to have immobile features that would be replaced in post-production by CGI, and it looks like this clip has had that work done on it.

His assessment is that the clip appears legit, but goes on to say that though shooting wrapped for Where the Wild Things Are last fall, the film is far from done, the fall 2008 release date has been pushed back, and he “wouldn’t be surprised to hear about some fairly massive reshoots in the months ahead.”

Related: the second offically released image

tedzee | Permalink | February 17 2008 | Comments (View)