Has the director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation gone mainstream? Could it be that the reformed Jackass prankster and one-time skate video auteur is hitting the multiplex? Well, the latter part is true, as Spike Jonze's adaptation of the Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are is hitting screens -- and lots of 'em -- tomorrow. But don't buy into the first bit at all. It's been a long and difficult road to get this one done and despite a marketing campaign that may indicate otherwise -- in that they're spending buckets of money to get this film out there everywhere -- Hollywood doesn't really seem to know what, exactly, they should be doing with Jonze or this movie.

Here's how it goes. While the idea of Jonze moving to one of the big studios may seem odd -- and it very definitely does -- he didn't really have much of a choice if he wanted to get this thing done. There was simply too much money involved, and too many resources that needed to be tapped if he was going to be able to bring Sendak's big, furry creatures to life. So off he went and found himself a willing backer in Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures. And things seemed okay at the beginning, with Warners leaving Jonze alone to hire his own writer -- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius author Dave Eggers handled the script -- and shoot without a lot of interference. But, you know ... Hollywood may say they love auteur film and unusual directors but they don't, really, not when they're spending a whole bucket of money. No, when the checkbook comes out what Hollywood really wants is something that compares favorably to a past blockbuster so the suits can tell themselves "Well, if that film made money this one should make even more!"  They want mainstream and predictable -- two terms seldom applied to any members of the Sendak / Eggers / Jonze trio.

And so the inevitable happened.  Jonze made the film he wanted to make and when Warners saw the first version they pretty much lost their shit. There was a strong possibility Jonze would be fired from his own film. There was talk of scrapping all of the footage shot and starting from scratch, with a new cast and a new director. There was talk of forcing Jonze to reshoot the entire film under much tighter supervision. You see... it seems someone at Warners had forgotten that they'd just hired a unique and often bizarre director to handle a film based on a very dark short story about a little boy who runs away and becomes King of the Monsters rather than simply going to his room when sent to bed without his supper. Whatever the had expected was not what they got when Jonze turned his first cut in. 

The end result was nowhere near as dramatic as it could have been. Everybody made nice -- Jonze retained control, Eggers is still the writer, there were no cast changes -- but an awful lot of footage was re-shot and now that they've got a finished film Warner Brothers has put on a great public show of support while simultaneously trying to keep the film out of the public eye. Why has Wild Things not played a single festival prior to release? You'd think this would be prime material for a word-of-mouth campaign, with loyal fans of Jonze and the source material champing at the bit to see it. Well, let's just say it's not for a lack of invitations. Programmers love the film and the invitations have come rolling in but the powers that be have declined every single one of them. Why?  Common speculation is because the film is too dark. Warner Brothers are afraid that people will come out saying "It's great but I don't know about taking kids to see it." And they want the kids to see it. Lots of them, each of them arriving with a paying parent, and so they've kept it out of the public eye.

Overseas travel has kept me from getting an advance look at this one, so -- while those I know who have seen it all agree that it's fantastic -- I haven't yet seen it myself. But it's been an interesting ride getting it to the big screen at all. I wonder if Jonze will ever dip his toes into big-studio waters again...