Kaufman and Jonze: Reunited? It Still Feels Good.

I’ve long been awaiting the Return of Charlie Kaufman: Screenwriter since he worked with imaginative French director Michel Gondry on 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  True, afterwards in ’08 he wrote and directed the underrated Synecdoche, New York, but since then, there’s been a serious void where his scripts ought to be. 

Kaufman and the coolest curls in showbiz.

No longer, or so it seems.  

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Spike Jonze Directs LCD Soundsystem's "Drunk Girls"

Spike Jonze didn't begin his directing career in the movies. He started by making music videos, and he's never really left them behind. The Where the Wild Things Are guy recently put together a new video for LCD Soundsystem for the band's single "Drunk Girls."

Jonze has kept himself very busy outside of film over the years, not just with music videos but also shorts and a slew of commercials, earning a nomination from the DGA in 2006 for his work in that medium. Many of those ads are worth a look, too. "Drunk Girls" is the first single from LCD's This is Happening, which will be in stores on May 17th. While the video's not, say, anything that will make OKGo worry about a closing ingenuity gap, it's certainly got some energy. Don't love the song, but I thought this might be an interesting way for you to kill four minutes.

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Movie Review - 'Where the Wild Things Are'

Where the Wild Things Are Starring Max Records, James Gandolfini, and Lauren Ambrose Directed by Spike Jonze Rated PG

There are a lot of things to love about the live-action adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, but there needs to be at least one more. It is without question a fully realized visual landscape, one familiar enough to invite us in yet unlike something we've really witnessed before, and it's generously loaded with great music that fits (and helps set) the overall mood. And yet... The effect of the ending of Where the Wild Things Are is very similar to watching a dazzling fireworks display only to expect a big finish that never materializes. To put it another way, it's missing that secret ingredient. Granted, director Spike Jonze couldn't give us a literal interpretation of Maurice Sendak's book, a staple of every childhood since the 1960s. Where the Wild Things Are is only about 40 pages and, of course, it's not full of dialogue or exposition. So making a feature film version of that book might be...20 minutes long? Clearly, Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers had to frame the story with something and give the characters more to do than they previously encountered. I don't even want to really evaluate the film based on those necessary changes or the ones Jonze gives the story to add more dramatic weight and slightly change the events leading young Max (Max Records) into this strange and magical land. But it doesn't fan the flame high enough, despite all those other wonderful things. When you watch the film, you might think the Wild Things - beasts of Max's own creation that look like larger, more fearsome stuffed animals - are clever puppeteering, like an advanced form of Muppets or something. In fact, they're a combination of puppets and CGI, and phenomenal work at that. If ever there was meant to be a live-action version of this classic story, the Wild Things had to look exactly like this.

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Featurette - 'Where the Wild Things Are' Soundtrack

After a rare massive overhaul of a major studio release, the adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are will finally be in theaters next Friday. Even though director Spike Jonze has been nominated for Best Director and has another film with four nomination in his history, Wild Things will be the biggest release of his career (some 3,500 theaters). Clearly, despite the earlier turmoil, Warner Bros. thinks this can be a big film for all involved.

Beyond the movie itself, though, there have been a few paragraphs written about the soundtrack to Where the Wild Things Are, which features original music from Karen O and The Kids (plus one track by composer Carter Burwell). The Karen O is Karen Orzolek, the vocalist for Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And she used to date director Spike Jonze, apparently, so that helps explain the connection. The Kids feature members of The Raconteurs, Services, Deerhunter, New Folk Implosion, and of course, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Here's a cool little featurette about the soundtrack from Trailer Addict:

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More 'Where the Wild Things Are' Character Posters

Cinematical debuted a bunch of new character posters for Where the Wild Things Are, which will be in theaters in less than a month. This collection goes along with a set we showed you last week around this time, and again, they're really nice even if they are a tad predictable.

I don't mind the expected with character posters, which are basically stylized headshots, anyway. Here, it helps us identify those childhood memories with the designs that director Spike Jonze has interpreted from Maurice sendak's book. I don't think I ever really imagined the wild things not being animated before this movie, so to me it's kind of a whole new world. From what I gather, these posters aren't just actors in fuzzy suits. I mean, there are actors there, though not the performers who provide the characters' voices, but we're looking at a lot of CGI. That makes it even more impressive to me.

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