Oct 26 2009 Weekend Box Office: No One Did Anything Good Besides 'Paranormal Activity'
1. Paranormal Activity - $22 million, bringing the low budget specter story up to over $62 million gross. And yet Ghost Dad, with the same paranormal theme plus Bill Cosby's star power, only made $24.7 domestic over its entire run. It just doesn't make any sense.
2. Saw VI - $14.8 million. Does this mean we're finally done with bizarre torture movies? Good--maybe now we can get some actual bizarre torture done.
3. Where the Wild Things Are - $14.4 million. This film has our best ogreish monster portrayals since Fraggle Rock. That is inarguable.
4. Law Abiding Citizen - $12.7 million. I just can't understand the appeal of a movie about what sounds like a standard, rule-following member of society. What's the draw?
5. Couples Retreat - $11 million. Despite dismal reviews and having been in theaters for three weeks, still able to beat Astroboy and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, neither of which I'm betting are getting a sequel any time soon.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Oct 19 2009 'Where the Wild Thing Are' Our Most Popular Weekend Movie
Your weekend box office top five, friends:
1. Where the Wild Things Are - $32.5 million. Man, did this thing ever take me back to childhood. Particularly the parts of my childhood that involved crying and breaking things.
2. Law Abiding Citizen - $21.3 million. Is support for vigilante justice waning? God, I hope not--that's how I get everything done!
3. Paranormal Activity - $20.2 million. I still can't understand how some camcorder footage of a "ghost" shuffling flour around the floor is somehow so much more popular than the YouTube video of myself shuffling flour around the floor.
4. Couples Retreat - $17.9 million, still managing to hold on to enough of the idiots-who-want-to-see-Couples-Retreat demographic.
5. The Stepfather - $12.3 million. Stepfathers just aren't as popular as they used to be. Biological fathers are all the rage now, guys.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Oct 15 2009 Coming to Projection Screens This Weekend...
Where the Wild Things Are
Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Max Records, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener
Good if you want to see: the illustrated monsters of your childhood come to life, and perpetually backlit with sunlight; childlike wonderment; me openly weeping in a crowd of people.
Law Abiding Citizen
Director: F. Gary Gray
Starring: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx
Good if you want to see: Gerard Butler kills a bunch of people while confined in a cell; plausibility and your patience stretched to their absolute limits as Gerard Butler kills a bunch of people while confined in a cell.
The Stepfather
Director: Nelson McCormick
Starring: Penn Badgley, Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward
Good if you want to see: why you should NEVER accept a new father into your home. Do you hear me... son?
Black Dynamite (limited)
Director: Scott Sanders
Starring: Michael Jai White, Arsenio Hall, Tommy Davidson
Good if you want to see: blaxploitation parody; Arsenio Hall doing anything besides hosting World's Funniest Moments.
New York, I Love You (limited)
Director: Brett Ratner, Natalie Portman, et al.
Starring: Oh, all kinds of people. I can almost guarantee there's someone you like who you'll lose respect for in this.
Good if you want to see: numerous stories celebrities falling in and out love; directors expressing affection for one of the largest, most popular and beloved cities in the world? That's weird.
Oct 13 2009 There Needs To Be a Book of Sad Goat Boy Photos ASAP
Seeing that there are only a few days until Where the Wild Things Are's release, I'd planned to hold off on posting any more photos from the film. That was before I knew a photo existed of a dismal goat boy weeping in a chair. Obviously, that needs to be shared with the world, so here it is.
Now, can I get a series of these as a calendar? I think it will do wonders for my mental health to know that, no matter how depressed I get, there's always someone else out there more depressed, who is also a goat boy.
Oct 9 2009 Kids Screaming for the 'Where the Wild Things Are' Soundtrack
At last, child screaming is being used for something better than alerting nearby authorities. Spike Jonze and Karen O harnessed untrained kid vocals for the Where the Wild Things Are Soundtrack (remember listening to that?), and now there's this featurette where you can see how they did it, why they did it, if Jonze cried the first time he saw picture & music matched up, etc.
Enjoy--or decry as over-hyped hipster bullshit, if you want to pee on my party:
Continue Reading " Kids Screaming for the 'Where the Wild Things Are' Soundtrack "
Oct 6 2009 What Happens When You Arbitrarily Fuse 'Where the Wild Things Are' Trailer and 'Gremlins 2'
And now Gremlins 2: The New Batch is getting a line of clothing and housewares at Urban Outfitters.
(via We Love You So)
Sep 29 2009 'Where the Wild Things Are' Production Designer Speaks!
K.K. Barrett was production designer for Human Nature, I Heart Huckabees, Lost in Translation, Maria Antoinette, and every feature film Spike Jonze has made. If he spends 18 minutes talking about his work, including his recent Where the Wild Things Are job, wouldn't you want to hear that? To the few of you absentmindedly nodding in apathetic agreement: good news for you! This is your chance to find out that designing the sets for Maria Antoinette involved more than just watching Elizabeth:
Continue Reading " 'Where the Wild Things Are' Production Designer Speaks! "
Sep 29 2009 Listen To This 'Wild Things' Music
Want to spend your day listening to music that alternates between melancholy anthems and twee Langley School-style child choirs? Sure you do; this music is in a movie picture!
Karen O's Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack is now streaming free on this internet device. Listen to it loud to show your co-workers that you're aware of more music than just early Steely Dan albums. They've been talking about that behind your back.
Sep 17 2009 'Where the Wild Things Are' Banners: This Movie's Parents Are Driving Her Here Soon!
Only about a month until Where the Wild Things Are comes out, meaning about a month until my unbridled, enthusiastic optimism will have to finally face the harsh reality of an actual film and its flaws. I'm a bit nervous. This film is my internet girlfriend, and while I'm excited to finally meet her face-to-face, I also worry how hard I've fallen for her after only seeing some pictures and a couple videos. Can she meet my expectations? What if there's a reason she never shows anything below her shoulders?
Let's enjoy basking in the idealized pre-meeting period a bit longer with this new set of character banners. I'm sure it will be fine. How can it not be when she looks so good in all these carefully angled photos?
Sep 15 2009 More 'Where the Wild Things Are' Things For Your Eyes
New Where the Wild Things Are photos and information on the New York Times, everyone. I'm hoping that if I expose myself to enough of the film to numb my senses a bit before it comes out, maybe my awe and weeping can be kept inaudible in the theater. Though, I guess it will be pretty hard to hear the bawling and gasps through the paper-mâché monster mask I'll be wearing anyway.
Sep 10 2009 If Alanis Morissette Were a Monster
There you have it.
More Where the Wild Thing Are character posters on the Facebook-style utility webpage known as MySpace.
Sep 4 2009 'Where the Wild Things Are': They're in Tatooine
As if nerds didn't want to see Where the Wild Thing Are enough already, here's a new poster where the film's monster and boy appear to be recreating a scene from Star Wars. This may win over some of the remaining hold-out geek demographic, but I'm still waiting on buying a ticket until I see a Where the Wild Things Are Mario Bros. cake.
Sep 4 2009 'Where the Wild Things Are' Has Cassavetesian Dialogue
I just spent the last 20 or so minutes reading a pretty expansive New York Times Article about Where the Wild Things Are and the life and career of its director, Spike Jonze. Maybe you should too, friend. Excerpt:
When I sat down with Jonze, I’d just seen a rough cut of the movie, and although I’d been expecting something unusual, I hadn’t quite been prepared for either the Cassavetes-speak or the lack of any clear conflict or resolution. I told Jonze I’d imagined something more along the lines of a traditional children’s fantasy film, something like “Harry Potter,” for example.He looked at me as if I’d let him down. “It’s in the visual language of, like, some sort of fantasy film, and it is a fantasy film to some degree,” he acknowledged, “but the tone of it is its own tone. We wanted it all to feel true to a 9-year-old and not have some big movie speech where a 9-year-old is suddenly reciting the wisdom of the sage.”
Good for printing on your company's dime, sneaking into the bathroom and wasting some time you can later blame on lady-problems (or, if you're male, blame on masturbating).
(via JoBlo)
Sep 3 2009 'Where the Wild Things Are': On the Cover of Filter
The new issue of Filter has this great Where the Wild Things Are cover illustrated by Geoff McFetridge, whose work you may have also seen in the Wild Things trailer titles and "I'm Rocking on Your Dime t-shirts. Pick it up on September 11 so you can hold it up while riding mass transportation to identify yourself as someone with hip tastes in music, film, and marker drawings.
(via We Love You So)
Aug 24 2009 Karen O's 'Where the Wild Things Are' Music Sounds
The first single from Karen O's Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack isn't available as a digital single until tomorrow, but you can stream the track, the child chorus-backed All Is Love, RIGHT NOW on MySpace. I'd say it's a tad saccharine and repetitive for my tastes, but then I'd probably seem like a bit of a hypocrite when I end up audibly weeping over it in the theater. Plus, it sounds better when you consider the context is "child running through a world of pure whimsy."
(Thanks, Joanna.)
Aug 10 2009 New 'Where the Wild Things Are' Trailer Will Destroy You
After my unplanned absence Friday ("shit happens" novelty t-shirts were right: shit does happen), let's start the catch-up process with the new trailer for Where the Wild Things Are. Director Spike Jonze has created an emotion microwave--two-and-a-half minutes and your heart should be warmed throughout:
Continue Reading " New 'Where the Wild Things Are' Trailer Will Destroy You "
Jul 24 2009 'Where the Wild Things Are' Featurette: Author Approved
Another reminder to stay non-bedridden until at least after October 16th: a new behind-the-scenes featurette for one of this fall's most anticipated releases, Where the Wild Things Are. In it, author Maurice Sendak voices his enthusiastic approval for Spike Jonze's adaptation, and draws parallels between himself and the director--plus, there's new, awe-inspiring footage. My expectations are reaching a point that, to meet them, the actual film strip is probably going to have to give me a handjob in the theater.
Continue Reading " 'Where the Wild Things Are' Featurette: Author Approved "
Jul 17 2009 The 'Where the Wild Things Are' of 1983
Back in 1983, long before Spike Jonze showed us that giant monsters look best as practical effects in sun-drenched forests, Disney owned the rights to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and were apparently considering making it an animated film. John Lasseter, then Disney emloyee and later founder of Pixar, did some tests to see if it would be feasible to use hand-drawn character animation over 3D backgrounds.
Studio heads decided the technique was "too expensive" and "what they do on Futurama," and Lasseter was fired shortly after. But now, thanks to internet, we can see one of those early tests:
Continue Reading " The 'Where the Wild Things Are' of 1983 "
May 13 2009 Where the Wild Things Art
I don't want to turn this into a fan art blog--I already have too many fan art blogs--but I thought this Where the Wild Things Are illustration by Emily Eibel needed to be shared, because it's really good, and I think there's a related movie or something coming out. Yeah?
More of her work notable for its film/television subject matter:
King of Kong.
Freaks & Geeks.
May 12 2009 It Turns Out Children Really Are Afraid of Wild Things
Remember all that controversy when Warner Bros. reportedly wanted drastic reshoots on Where the Wild Things Are, citing the fact that kids were scared shitless of the aforementioned Wild Things? Well, director Spike Jonze shouldn't have been surprised, because as you'll see in his early test of a Wild Thing mask, this kid is not having it:
Continue Reading " It Turns Out Children Really Are Afraid of Wild Things "
