Where the Wild Things Are: Official Release Date and Photos

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on December 13, 2008

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Much has been made of the delays surrounding Spike Jonze’s long-gestating adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Rumors of reshoots, studio interference and script rewrites have been running rampant all year. All of the problems have stemmed from a research screening held last December, in which kids in the audience were seen crying and fleeing the theater–not exactly the reaction the studio had hoped for.

Since then Spike Jonze has been rumored on and off of the film, all the while taking the additional time and money to go back and continue to evolve the film back to a place that won’t scare off the kiddies. As Patrick Goldstein at The LA Times points out, the issues with Wild Things have exposed some of the “pitfalls of Warners’ strategy of marrying gifted directors to mainstream studio material,” a strategy that has produced a number of triumphs, including Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and Stephen Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven. It has also produced several major duds, including The Wachowski Brothers’ hyper-stylized, bloated adaptation of the popular kids property Speed Racer. And while they appear to believe they are back on the right track with Wild Things, it is important to note that they created this monster by hiring a director with the ability to bring a unique perspective to the material. It is also interesting to note that there are people out there who would be interested in Jonze’s darker, more intensely frightening version of the film. But that wouldn’t lend well to marketing and box office receipts, would it? Therefore we will get less Spike Jonze and more Alan Horn, and Wild Things with very little bite.

Diatribe over. Lets get back to the real news at hand. This morning Warner Bros. released their official 2009 preview, which includes first look images from a good deal of their ‘09 slate. Included in the pack is some official info and photos (none of which are either new or groundbreaking) from Where the Wild Things Are. You will find said info by using your scroll function and peering down below.

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WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
In theatres on October 16

(Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures)

Director: Spike Jonze
Writers: Screenplay by Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers
Based on the book by Maurice Sendak
Producers: Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, Maurice Sendak, John Carls, Vincent Landay
Executive Producers: Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Bruce Berman

Cast: Catherine Keener, Max Records, Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Ambrose, James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker

Adventure. Maurice Sendak’s classic book Where the Wild Things Are comes to the big screen in an adventure tale for every generation.

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  • that looks really awesome
  • Arou101
    Hm. I like what I see.
  • Nick C
    Hollywood is finally gonna do my childhood justice on the big screen. Yay!!!
  • Phyrflie
    They should just let it go streight to DVD. The graphics look good from what you can see, and hopefully if you get a look at the beasts without them being a silhouette they should look at least half-way decent.
    That was an excellent children's book, and I think they should have released it.
  • Zach
    Seriously. Speed Racer wasn't a dud. What I think you're TRYING to say is that Speed Racer didn't make any money.
  • Sam
    in comparison to how much it cost to make, it most certainly was. not saying it was necessarily a bad flick- i didnt see it, it was however unsuccessful at the box office, which, unfortunatley turns heads away more so these days than lack of gripping special effects.
  • Another release date for "Where the Wild Things Are"? I'll believe it when I see it. This movie is Hollywood's Duke Nukem Forever.
  • dogii
    i would like to see the darker version of this film. it would be far more interesting, i always thought the book was a little fucked up anyway.
  • TheTruth
    Wait since when did speed racer suck?
  • bob
    Or Hollywood will completely ruin everything that was great about the book.
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