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
Tags: spike jonze, kanye west, max records, where the wild things are clip
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February 17th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
One thing that I noticed is that the ADR is terribly, terribly mixed. You can hear the slight echoes of the room, especially on Carrol’s first couple of lines. This means that the voice was not of any import to the final picture, but rather a place-holder. So, my theory is that before the film was even in the can, they got to work testing the CGI and needed a voice to be saying the lines, so they could match lips. They probably just got anybody who was available to read the lines and thus didn’t go to great lengths to get a phenomenal recording of them. And if it’s not even the same Max or costume, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that this is an early screen test for the CGI.
February 17th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Thanks for the insight, Sam.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:31 am
[…] quick statement (via The Hot Blog) from Spike Jonze passed down from Warner Brothers, regarding the leak of footage from production of Where the Wild Things Are: “That was a very early test with the sole purpose […]
February 20th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
The Boy is Griffin Armstorff in a screen test shot in Griffith Park in 2005. The voice is Sean Penn. It was all improv by the young actor . Sean’s voice was added later. There are three more scenes
February 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am
[…] What started out this past weekend as excitement over leaked screen test footage for Where the Wild Things Are has led to rampant speculation over the future of the project. CHUD […]