2008-02-16

Is it real? Possible clip from 'Where The Wild Things Are' surfaces..

This past day or so, a clip has surfaced on the net that seems to be footage from the upcoming film.

The clip shows Max and a Wild Thing he refers to as 'Carol', talking with each other. Max asks if 'Carol' knows any tricks. Carol tells Max to grab a stick and hit him with it, as it won't hurt him. Carol then asks Max if he knows any tricks. Max goes ahead and does 'the Robot', saying that 'Robots are the best'. Carol looks hurt by this and walks away. Max joins him as they look off into the distance.

The creature is quite awesome and looks just how we expected it to. It's a large puppet costume, and the facial expressions look to be computer generated, and very well done at that. As a whole, it looks extremely close to what we've seen in Sendak's book.
I couldn't pin down any particular actor who was doing the voice of Carol. One thing that I questioned though, was that the boy depicting Max in the clip didn't look much like the actor we saw in the official still released by Warner Bros. last year. The costume he's wearing also doesn't seem entirely consistent with it. But who knows..

While the relevancy of the clip has come into question on different message boards, cinema site 'Cinematical' posted the clip and pretty quickly received a call from Warner Bros. asking for the clip to be removed, not directly confirming it was related to the film, but saying it was 'not authorized' to be released. Due to the above, the clip will not be posted here. (I'm sure you can find it if you really want to)

SO: Could this clip be from the film? Or could it maybe be from some early test shooting (which seems a good possibility)? Or maybe it could be from an entirely different production?

Who knows. But either way, it's pretty exciting.

edit: On a second viewing, you can clearly see what looks to be the Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles) in the background for some shots, so this probably wouldn't be a clip from the movie as it was filmed in Australia. More evidence that this is probably from an early test shot.