Where The Wild Things Are

Started by tpfkabi, November 27, 2003, 09:31:27 PM

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MacGuffin

Berger On Why He Said No To Wild Things

Oscar-winning special-effects master Howard Berger told SCI FI Wire that he turned down doing the film version of Where the Wild Things Are--which he called his favorite book as a child--and that he anticipated the problems that director Spike Jonze is reportedly having adapting the classic book to film.

In his bio--and speaking backstage after winning an Oscar for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe--Berger said that his fascination with special effects started with his mother, a teacher, as she read him Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. "That's what started this for me," Berger said.

So was he disappointed not to work on the film version of his favorite book? "No, I'm not," Berger said with a laugh. "We were approached four times, and we turned it down four times. [We turned it down] because I'm in love with it so much. I respect it too much. What is happening is what I thought would happen."

There were rumors earlier, reported on C.H.U.D. and elsewhere, that Warner was not happy with Jonze's footage and that it was even considering re-shooting the entire film. The movie is expected to be released in October 2009.

Whether those reports are true or not, Berger said: "The direction that they were taking in the movie was certainly not the direction that I would have taken. It was potentially a catastrophe. I had a sinking feeling about it. I didn't want to get myself in it. It's a horrible idea."

Berger and his partner, Greg Nicotero of KNB EFX Group, in Van Nuys, Calif., met with Jonze, who is helming the movie for Warner Brothers. Berger worked on Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith, Land of the Dead and Transformers, as well as The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which comes out on DVD on Dec. 2.

"Even when I heard about it I thought, 'I don't want to do it,'" Berger said. "Greg and I met with Spike Jonze a couple of times, and they kept asking us if would we do it."

The film is going to be a mix of computer-generated animation and animatronics, with some of the characters in giant suits made of foam. The cast includes Forest Whitaker, Michelle Williams, Catherine O'Hara and James Gandolfini.

Berger said that he still has a life-sized beast in his office like one of the Wild Things.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Stefen

It breaks my heart that this film is having so much trouble. It's quite possibly the movie I'm most looking forward to.

The less faith the studio has in it, the more faith I have in it.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Alexandro

yeah. so the guy who worked in narnia, episode 3 and transformers thinks this was a terrible idea. as opposed to those films i guess, which were so wonderful and full of the true magic of motion pictures. so we can be sure this is going to be great.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: Alexandro on November 25, 2008, 10:33:35 AM
yeah. so the guy who worked in narnia, episode 3 and transformers thinks this was a terrible idea. as opposed to those films i guess, which were so wonderful and full of the true magic of motion pictures. so we can be sure this is going to be great.

Oh god, don't discredit him in such a smug way. He's worked on a lot of other films (including Boogie Nights and the Kill Bill movies) and his work isn't the reason why all three of the films listed were bad. The guy gave his opinion and it seems to correlate with a lot of other reports. Does it mean the film will be bad? No, but I can't see how we can be dissing someone on a situation we know nothing about.

Alexandro

A guy like that should shut his face. A director is having trouble to get a vision on screen and this guy comes out to say something like that? He felt the need to contribute or something? Fuck him and his Narnia oscar.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: Alexandro on November 25, 2008, 09:14:55 PM
A guy like that should shut his face. A director is having trouble to get a vision on screen and this guy comes out to say something like that? He felt the need to contribute or something? Fuck him and his Narnia oscar.

That's just ridiculous to me, but alright.

Stefen

I agree with Alexandro. If Berger thinks he can do better, he needs to get funding and prove it. I can't imagine anyone like Spike Jonze criticizing Berger for his attempted work so in turn, it's not fair the other way around, either.

He needs to know his role. There's a reason Spike Jonze is an accomplished filmmaker and Berger does "make-up."
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Sleepless

Please, the article reads like total filler, like it was pieced together because the editor wanted another story on how WTWTA is doomed. His comments were from a couple of years back, and it's essentially the same thing said three different ways. It's not like he called up Variety with the intention of dissing the film. You guys need to chill.

Besides, his reasons for not doing the film was because he was so attached to the source material. I seem to remember lots of folks here upset about the Transformers and new Star Wars movies for similar reasons?
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Stefen

Any of us would have jumped at the chance to work on Transformers or the Prequels.

We wouldn't be like, ""The direction that they were taking in the movie was certainly not the direction that I would have taken. It was potentially a catastrophe. I had a sinking feeling about it. I didn't want to get myself in it. It's a horrible idea."
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Pozer

Quote from: Stefen on November 26, 2008, 08:56:16 AM
I can't imagine anyone like Spike Jonze criticizing Berger for his attempted work so in turn, it's not fair the other way around, either.

yeah, it's unsettling in that they obviously admired his work and wanted his talent on their movie and he makes it a point to say they approached him four times and he said no that many times and knew it would be a disaster.

"Even when I heard about it I thought, 'I don't want to do it.'"  way to take on a challenge, Narnia guy.  keep playing it safe with Transformers 2.  the Children of Men animators had the balls to say YES that's all that matters.   

MacGuffin

Hot Movie Drama: Where the Wild Things Are
Source: Rolling Stone

No film project has enthralled the indie-blogiverse more than Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers' adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things Are. But in the past year, the film has been plagued by rumors: that Jonze's version was too dark, that the studio hated it, that Jonze might take his name off the movie. Here, the media-shy Jonze finally sets the record straight on one of 2009's most anticipated films.

Fans were thrilled that you and Eggers were collaborating on WTWTA. But then it was reported that Warner Bros. was concerned about an early version, that it wasn't the mass-audience movie they wanted. What happened?
Well, the editing process wasn't always fun, but in the end, we've made the movie we set out to make. All the reasons you were excited about it, those were the reasons they [Warner Bros.] were uncomfortable with it. It isn't what they're familiar with. But they've become comfortable and embraced it. In the end, they let me finish my movie.

They had to have known if they hired you and Eggers, it was going to be unusual.
It's just not the kind of movie that they make on their own. In most movies about kids, there's, like, a movie reality: The conflict is a movie conflict, the kid is a movie kid. So when you see behavior or a tone that's not like that, it took them a while to embrace that.

What specifically did you and the producers argue about?
You know, it's like talking about a couple that's been fighting and going to counseling. What matters now is that we made it through all of that — and it's probably better not to rehash what happened in counseling. I got to make my movie. It is true to the intention of what I set out to do.

What was your intention?
I wanted to make a movie that felt true to me and my experience of being a kid, trying to understand the world and people around me, trying to understand the relationships and wild emotions inside me and the people I was close to. As a kid, there's no road map to navigate any of that. Basically, I wanted to take this nine-year-old kid seriously as a person who is trying to understand the world and himself.

Some early reports said that the film might be too intense for young kids.
We're walking that line of making something that's intense, because kids are so open that something that's just kind of intense is really intense to an eight-year-old. But any rumor gets so blown out of proportion.

Is it a film for young kids?
It's not for all four-year-olds. It might not be right for one four-year-old but could work for another. When Maurice wrote the book, Max was five. When I started, it felt like the natural age for Max was eight or nine. So the movie is different in that way.

Is it true there was a moment you almost walked away?
It goes back to the couples counseling. There was definitely a point in time when they were sleeping on the sofa.

Has Maurice Sendak seen it?
Maurice is happy with it. It was important to me that he felt it was honest. To know that he is happy and didn't think it was pandering or cutesy . . . that passed his barometer test of honesty. That meant a lot.

What was the biggest lesson of all this?
I think I was sort of willfully naive about how hard it was going to be, given the size of the movie, the technical difficulty, that it's a movie starring a kid, shot on locations. But I think it's important to stay naive through all of that. If you make decisions based on how hard they're going to be, then it could be a mistake. So I hope I can be as naive to how hard it is next time. But I need to sleep for a year before I can do anything again.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

modage

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
In theatres on October 16

(according to the WB 2009 movie preview)
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Stefen

I just hope it's not studio dumbed down.

From the test footage I've seen, I'd watch this if it had no dialogue at all.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

modage

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Stefen

I may pick up the white pair. I just wish they weren't so plain and had some black lines like the white Adidas Superstars I've been wearing everyday since, like, 2003. Poseur.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.