wild thing

Where The Wild Things Are is by far my favorite children's book. I feel I must admit that I did not discover this until recently, though (prior, it had been the Sideways Stories series by Louis Sachar). I took a Children's Literature class a couple of semesters ago, and the first thing we did was rip apart Where the Wild Things Are. It was a cool experience, seeing how a children's book could be ripe with so much meaning below its surface. Did Maurice Sendak intend it? Who knows? But it's still pretty cool.

So, you can imagine my excitement (or perhaps, fear considering the current state of Hollywood sequels, prequels, and shit movies) when I heard that it was being adapted into a movie.

Not only that, but it was being written by Dave Eggers (one of my favorite writers) and directed by Spike Jonze (one of my favorite directors). With these two guys behind the camera and script, it was sure to be experimental and odd but also deeply touching.

Well, scrap that.

Apparently, the studio that is behind the project has decided that the movie is far too dark and that it's not sure it wants to release it the way it is (as if kids don't see worse things these days).

So, who knows if we'll ever get to see the intended vision of the two geniuses mentioned above. If not, we can always pretend. And we can still look forward to Dave Eggers' new book, The Wild Things, a book inspired by the story, coming in 2009.

The suits win again.