Where The Wild Things Are(n't?)

If you haven't been following the drama around the new Spike Jonze (Director's Label!) film, Where The Wild Things Are, you probably saved yourself some serious anxiety. And by serious I mean some of people are getting pretty worked up about this movie about a bunch of muppets.

The film, which features vocal performances by Forest Whitaker, Paul Dano, James Gandolfini and Catherine Keener, and a soundtrack by The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Karen O. + friends (ie Bradford Cox), has already been pushed back to 2009.

According to Slashfilm "Word in the hills is that Warner Bros is extremely unhappy with the finished product. Test screening audiences have complained that the film is too adult and even too scary for children."

Slashfilm also reports that the $75 Million feature may have to be completely reshot.

That's bad news for us, like anyone my age, I loved the book (and anything else Sendak related) and was excited to see what Dave Eggers and Jonze would come up with.

In any event, here's a bigger version of the still (courtesy of MTV) that Jonze alleges was a vfx test, and a shot (courtesy of ego-rapper Kanye West) of one of the little muppets in Jim Henson's workshop.

Also, here are a couple of shots and a clip (presumably another fx test wink wink).

US

I recently produced a short film, the second of director JR Skola, called US: a love story. We went through some scheduling difficulties and caused a blackout on the entire block of the apartment we were shooting in (my apologies to our neighbors in Hoboken) but we had an amazing time and got some awesome footage! We had a hard working crew and really devoted actors. Our DP Ben Nicholas made movie magic with that HVX camera and lighting of his- check out some of the productions stills:

I'll be updating more on short film shoots... the next will be from a log cabin built in 1810!!!

News: Summer Palace gets reviewed...

If you like indie films and haven't checked out our most recent release Summer Palace, you should do so.

But don't take our word for it, check our most recent review in the SF Chronicle, where they call the film "“the most important Chinese film this decade”.

Or check the New York Times review (Critics' Pick!), or the New Yorker.

Jazz Ain't Dead

Quick shout out to those skateboard kids in bushwick that know how to throw a party, check out the house band The Stumblebum Brass Band, coming soon to subway platform near you.

Wild Combination

Just a quick post to tell you to check out this trailer for a forthcoming doc about Arthur Russell, one of the forefathers of dance music and one of the unsung greats. You've danced to Loose Joints at least once in your life...the film looks great.



For more info, check the website

The doc is by Matt Wolf- read an interview by our friends at Dusted Magazine here

They have a Myspace and a blog

Garfield Minus Garfield

This is honestly one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Have you considered the fact that Jon Arbuckle, co-star of the comic strip "Garfield," is essentially talking to himself? Well, remove the thought-bubble spouting cat sidekick and a very, very disturbed individual remains:


Depressing, eh? This is an actual "Garfield" strip (sans the orange cat, obviously).

To see more, click here:

GARFIELD MINUS GARFIELD

Music in Films...

I've found about some of my favorite artists through films and I've imagined films as vehicles for some of my favorite artists.

A great site that deals with music and film is this one. Check the soundtrack series, so great.

Anyway, so I thought I'd highlight some of my favorite film/music moments.

The first is probably the most significant to me, if only because of the great stuff it turned me onto.

The last scene in Paul Auster & Wayne Wang's Smoke aka "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story"




Not only was the the first indie movie I ever saw at Angelika, but it turned me onto Tom Waits...and then onto Jim Jarmusch. It made me want to create my own music videos, which I did here, here and here. I love this sequence.

Jackson C. Frank - MUST LISTEN

Check out this semi-obscure folk singer/songwriter Jackson C. Frank. "Blues Run the Game," his only album, features sparse yet achingly beautiful compositions, which everyone from Paul Simon (the producer of this recording) to Nick Drake has covered.

Below is a link to Frank's song "I Want to Be Alone (Dialogue)"--my favorite song in the collection:
"I Want to Be Alone (Dialogue)"

And here's a slide show set to Nick Drake's version of "Milk and Honey":
"Milk and Honey"

I thoroughly recommend shelling out some greenbacks for this album (or getting it by some other means... you know, like downloading it). Enjoy!