{"id":1073,"date":"2009-10-13T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2009\/10\/spike-jonze-vs-where-the-wild-things-are.html"},"modified":"2009-10-13T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-13T17:07:00","slug":"spike-jonze-vs-where-the-wild-things-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2009\/10\/spike-jonze-vs-where-the-wild-things-are.html","title":{"rendered":"Spike Jonze vs. "Where the Wild Things Are""},"content":{"rendered":"

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BY this point, “being john malkovich” is considered one of the masterpieces of the indie-film movement. but when word started to filter down, 10 years ago, about this project by skateboard\/ rock video auteur and the then-unknown screenwriter charlie kaufman, it was hard to imagine this working. a film about living inside a celebrity’s brain, directed by a kooky guy who had never made a film longer than the beastie boys’ “sabotage” video?<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
jonze<\/a> — by now also celebrated for “adaptation” — is of course on our minds again because of his much-awaited adaptation of “where the wild things are.” <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
a decade ago, writing for the paper New Times LA, i was intrigued by the buzz around “malkovich,” and the screening made clear that this was a boldly original film. originally, i was going to meet jonze at a bar for an interview. then, at his LA apartment, which i imagined as full of skateboards. and then, i found out i had to go to new york, for the film’s junket, where i would finally get a one-one-one interview. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
so i flew to new york. when i got there, i was told that he insisted on having cameron diaz and catherine keener in the room with him. of course, i did not mind the company of these lovely babes (diaz seemed to have gone undercover as an english major for a liberal arts college; when she greeted me like an old friend i thought she might be a wesleyan classmate assisting on the film.) but having two stunning actresses in the room made it hard for both jonze and i to concentrate. it just got weirder from there.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
in any case, here<\/a> is the cover story i wrote for now-defunct new times, which is reprinted here in sister paper SF Weekly. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
i welcome discussion of the new film, which opens friday, on this site.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY this point, “being john malkovich” is considered one of the masterpieces of the indie-film movement. but when word started to filter down, 10 years ago, about this project by skateboard\/ rock video auteur and the then-unknown screenwriter charlie kaufman, it was hard to imagine this working. a film about living inside a celebrity’s brain, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[442,441,76,40,143,443],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-where-the-wild-things-are","7":"category-charlie-kaufman","8":"category-film","9":"category-indie","10":"category-maurice-sendak","11":"category-spike-jonze","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}