Beautiful, beautiful slow-motion skate video intro by Spike Jonze. The video it's taken from isn't too shoddy either...here's a typical glowing review. (via avenues)
A review of the script for Where the Wild Things Are, written by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze (the script, not the review):
Where the Wild Things Are is filled with richly imagined psychological detail, and the screenplay for this live-action film simply becomes a longer and more moving version of what Maurice Sendak's book has always been at heart: a book about a lonely boy leaving the emotional terrain of boyhood behind.
McSweeney's in a spot of trouble
Bad news from McSweeney's: their distributor filed for bankruptcy late last year and now they're out $130,000:
As you may know, it's been tough going for many independent publishers, McSweeney's included, since our distributor filed for bankruptcy last December 29. We lost about $130,000 -- actual earnings that were simply erased. Due to the intricacies of the settlement, the real hurt didn't hit right away, but it's hitting now. Like most small publishers, our business is basically a break-even proposition in the best of times, so there's really no way to absorb a loss that big.
To try and make up the gap, they're having a big sale and are also auctioning off some "rare items" like original art from Chris Ware, proofs from issues, signed copies of things, a painting by Dave Eggers of George W. Bush as a double amputee, and so on. In addition to Ware and Eggers, there's stuff from David Byrne, Nick Hornsby, and Spike Jonze. I've long admired McSweeney's for their editorial and business approach...it would be a shame to see them go out of business because of another company's financial difficulties. So give them a hand by purchasing something, if you'd like.
Jay Fernandez of the LA Times gets his hands on the screenplay for Charlie Kaufman's new movie, Synecdoche, New York --which Charlie will also be directing (in the absence of Spike Jonze) -- and loves it. "No one has ever written a screenplay like this. It's questionable whether cinema is even capable of handling the thematic, tonal and narrative weight of a story this ambitious." Incidentally, synecdoche.
Some background on how Al Gore's global warming presentation got so polished. Also references Spike Jonze's Al Gore video from 2000 which pictures Gore as anything but stiff. Some backstory on the Jonze video.
Update: More on Gore's use of Keynote.
Why does it take Wes Anderson (and Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze and PT Anderson and...) so long to make a movie? "The Eccentrics seem to be guarding their personal ideas so jealously that it sometimes suggests a creative block. The eternity of anticipation has frustrated those film lovers who look to certain artists to provide the Great American Movie." Slate also has a review of Wes Anderson's great Amex commerical.
Spike Jonze's film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are had been shelved, but Warner Bros has revived it. Jonze wrote the screenplay with Dave Eggers. (via rw)
Spike Jonze. Gap commercial. Go watch.
