Where the Wild Things Are (film)





A theatrical adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are, is currently in production with effects provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. The story follows Max, who is sent to bed without supper and imagines sailing away to the land of Wild Things, where he is made king.

Several actors were announced as providing voices for the monsters, while the Creature Shop is providing the animatronic puppets for the Wild Things. The seven Wild Things stand as tall as 275 centimeters, or approximately 9 feet.

In November 2006, Catherine O'Hara discussed the voice cast and the project's status at that point "We had Forest Whitaker and James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams and, oh, man, please get the list. Really great actors. We all workshopped the characters of the Wild Things. Catherine Keener and Spike Jonze took turns playing the little boy, Max. We were working from a script, but we were also improvising a lot. They played the little boy, and the rest of us played the Wild Things. I'm one of the Wild Things. My name is Judith. We shot this for two weeks on a commercial stage in L.A., and then they took that, basically our voices, but also our character work... and they're now shooting it in Australia, with a live little boy."

In April 2008, a picture of a character design sculpt circulated from Kanye West's visit to the Creature Shop.

Canada's National Post newspaper named it their "most anticipated" movie of the year, and Entertainment Weekly named it among their 12 "must see movies" for 2009.

Trailer
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Crew

 * Director: Spike Jonze
 * Producers: Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, Maurice Sendak, John Carls, Vincent Landay
 * Story: Maurice Sendak
 * Screenplay: Dave Eggers, Michael Goldenberg, Spike Jonze

Cast

 * Max: Max Records
 * Max's Mom: Catherine Keener
 * Wild Things (voices): Lauren Ambrose, Michael Berry Jr., Paul Dano, James Gandolfini, Tom Noonan, Catherine O'Hara, and Forest Whitaker

Notes: Benicio Del Toro was originally cast as the voice of one of the Wild Things but was replaced by James Gandolfini prior to production. Likewise, Michelle Williams was cast as the voice of KW, but was later replaced by Lauren Ambrose.