tracker
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!
Home For You Chat My Shows (beta) Register Games Grosses
pixeltracker

Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim to test audiences?

Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim to test audiences?

Cruel_Sandwich
#1Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim to test audiences?
Posted: 6/3/08 at 12:11am

It was announced today (http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/12438) that reshoots of Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE...which wrapped filming apparently TWO years ago(!!!!)...will commence this Friday. They're not going into much detail, but there are casting calls up.

That, coupled with the fact that the test screenings did not go well (http://www.chud.com/articles/articles/13720/1/WHERE-THE-WILD-THINGS-ARE-BEING-COMPLETELY-RESHOT/Page1.html), does not bode well because I really really really wanted to see this film and Spike's take on it sounded really interesting and dark and unique. I do not wish for them to do to this what they did to the CAT IN THE HAT movie...taking a relatively dark book for kids and making it gratingly awful.

Cruel_Sandwich
#2re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 12:33am

Test audiences are not koo.

SueleenGay Profile Photo
SueleenGay
#2re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 12:42am

Why is it the audience's fault when an ill-conceived film of a book that should never be made into a full length film fails?


PEACE.

Cruel_Sandwich
#3re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 12:47am

Basically, the test audience process is the studio's way of forcing you to make "their cut" of the film.

They determine the commercial potential of your film by getting audience members who are very clearly NOT the audience for your movie. They usually recruit at malls and multiplex theater chains. People always go because they want to see a free movie. After watching the film, you fill out a sheet: Five things you liked, five things you didn't like, which characters you identified with, etc. If it's a comedy, what did you laugh at the most? What did you want to see more of?

Test audiences have been responsible for changing downer endings to films, even when they fit perfectly. E.T., for example, would have died if the test audience did not have their say. Frank Oz's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS remake once ended with the stage ending: Everyone dying and the plants taking over the world in a sequence that cost $5 million to film.

So, overall, it's not usually a pleasant thing to have to go through.

tazber Profile Photo
tazber
#4re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 7:03am

If you haven't seen it cruel, you really shouldn't opine. I didn't see it either, but based on the 20 or so minutes of it that was leaked online, it was in need of help.
The acting was oddly stilted and the tone was erratic. Worst of all, it was completley unengaging.
I love Spike Jonze, but he seemed confused about what he was making.


....but the world goes 'round

Cruel_Sandwich
#5re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 8:18am

That wasn't twenty minutes. That was just test animation footage according to Spike Jonze. The kid playing Max in that clip was just some kid they asked to do it for a weekend or so and isn't in the actual film.

tazber Profile Photo
tazber
#6re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 8:51am

I saw that clip too. That was in addition to the other 20 minutes that was leaked.


....but the world goes 'round

best12bars Profile Photo
best12bars
#7re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 9:02am

Cruel, you need to study film history.

MGM (the biggest and best Hollywood studio in the Golden Age of cinema) had the interdepartmental motto of "We don't MAKE movies here, we RE-MAKE them." (And no, they weren't referring to the endless parade of "remakes" of old movies back then. That disgusting trend didn't even occur to them.)

During the Thalberg era of the 1930s, they would test films, and based on audience reaction they would cut, re-shoot, re-write, change the ending, and even scrap entire films that didn't test well. It was ALL about the test audience's cumulative reaction. They weren't making movies for themselves. They were making them for the public to see and enjoy. And if they didn't enjoy it, they would FIX it.

Today, too many filmmakers just hurl crap at audiences and say take it or leave it. Nice attitude. Why don't you just show it to yourself, in that case?

By all accounts Where the Wild Things Are SUCKS. That's why they're trying to fix it. I'm glad they're actually doing it.

Today, studios "test" movies and most often don't make any changes from the feedback. They're missing the point. That was the ENTIRE purpose of a test screening, back in the day. Not just to show the film, but to (hopefully) improve it.


"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

DG
#8re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 9:09am

"E.T., for example, would have died"

That would NOT have sat well with me!

Borstalboy Profile Photo
Borstalboy
#9re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 9:12am

Where do you get your E.T. information? I have never heard this.


Test audiences, however, DID ruin many a movie: FATAL ATTRACTION and WHITE CASTLE come to mind.


"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

tazber Profile Photo
tazber
#10re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 9:16am

White Castle was ruined way before the test audiences.


....but the world goes 'round

JohnPopa Profile Photo
JohnPopa
#11re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 9:20am

Is there anything more cliched than an artsy director wanting to find the 'dark' take on a children's story?

Bored already.

Borstalboy Profile Photo
Borstalboy
#12re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 9:23am

WHITE CASTLE was a great movie ruined by a horrible ending.


"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

Roscoe
#13re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 10:34am

Ick. Spike Jonze. Talented director of videos, grossly overrated director of over-clever nonsense feature films.


"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/

best12bars Profile Photo
best12bars
#14re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 10:39am

"Is there anything more cliched than an artsy director wanting to find the 'dark' take on a children's story?"


No, there isn't. Amen, JohnPopa.


"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Roscoe
#15re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 10:57am

"Is there anything more cliched than an artsy director wanting to find the 'dark' take on a children's story?"

Only a British director wanting to find the dark take on an American musical, like Trevor Nunn's atrocious OKLAHOMA.


"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/

Cruel_Sandwich
#16re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 11:29am

I must humbly yet respectfully disagree, b12b. More often than not, test audiences are usually the types of people that are completely wrong for the movie you try to make. They usually want the film to be as inoffensive as possible, which is bull**** because films should challenge people. Imagine if Bunuel had to deal with test audiences.

And while it is clear that filmmaking, more than any other artform, is a business, I am still a film believer and defender of it as an artform. I do believe in auteur theory and that the film is the overall vision of the director with the collective vision of every other crew and castmember woven throughout. I don't believe that test audiences should really come into the equation.

Cruel_Sandwich
#17re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 11:31am

Plus, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is a dark book to begin with.

Cruel_Sandwich
#18re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 7:02pm

What if BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN ended with Jack being miraculously saved from death and he and Ennis live happily ever after?

SueleenGay Profile Photo
SueleenGay
#19re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 7:11pm

"Imagine if Bunuel had to deal with test audiences."


Seriously, you are comparing Jonze to Bunuel? No, I mean, SERIOUSLY?


PEACE.

best12bars Profile Photo
best12bars
#20re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 6/3/08 at 7:20pm

Test audiences aren't (or at least weren't) used to make everything "happy."

They were used to make everything "better." If you ever get the chance, watch "MGM: When the Lion Roars" with the actual people who were involved in the golden age of that movie studio. Listen to incredible talents like the legendary film editor Margaret Booth talk about test screenings and what they meant to the creative team. She said she couldn't wait for an advance screening, so they could decide how to make the picture better.

They actually wanted to improve their work as much as possible, not just chuck it out there and say "this is my art."

Margaret Booth's film resume


"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Updated On: 6/3/08 at 07:20 PM

Borstalboy Profile Photo
Borstalboy
#21re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 7/15/08 at 2:36pm


Another article about all this...with an interesting clip of a failed attempt to film it in the eighties


"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

sondheimboy2 Profile Photo
sondheimboy2
#22re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 7/16/08 at 12:48am

The question I have for this is the same question I had for "Polar Express", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Jumanji", etc.:

WHY take a twenty page children's book that has little or no actual story and try to make it a feature length film?


"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music "Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70 "Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba

Cruel_Sandwich
#23re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 7/16/08 at 1:18am

WTWTA could probably hack it as a film, especially with Jonze directing.

YouWantitWhen???? Profile Photo
YouWantitWhen????
#24re: Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Another movie to fall victim t
Posted: 7/16/08 at 1:23am

Cruel, you finance the movie, and then you can have complete say and ignore test audience reactions.


Videos