Spike Jonze’s robot-love-story short film “I’m Here” is evidently near a completed deal with IFC Films, though some say the ink on that contract is not quite dry yet.
Could that release come rather quick, as in next month? According to the “I’m Here” website, the film is set to be released on the site in March. They wouldn’t renege now would they?
Starring Andrew Garfield and Sienna Guillory (“Eragon, “Love Actually”), the project is noted by Jonze as taking inspiration from Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.” In fact, he named Garfield’s protagonist character Sheldon, after the author. “I was trying to take the influence of The Giving Tree, but write about relationships,” Jonze told EW. “I love Shel Silverstein. I just love him.” The short has been earning rave reviews during its Sundance debut with comparisons to “Wall-E” and special mention for Jonze’s ability to emote robots resembling “the old Apple Macintosh classic computer.”
Lots of folks have asked us about the music in Jonze’s short, so let’s recap what we posted when we wrote about the trailer, plus add some details found on the official “I’m Here” site. The song used in the trailer is “There Are Many Of Us” by Aska Matsumiya, of the L.A. indie rockers Moonrats and The Sads. Her collaborators on the track are Nick Zinner of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Asaka’s first album and first solo EP will be released in the spring with the single, “There Are Many of Us,” plus will feature guests from members of Pretty Girls Make Graves, Lucky Dragons, and Money Mark (The Beastie Boys’ former venerable keyboardist).
This makes perfect sense considering the Moonrats also star in the film as a fake band called The Lost Trees led by David Kramer, and their songs in the picture were also produced by Zinner. The score of the 31-minute short was composed by Sam Spiegel, aka Squeak E. Clean of the group NASA and Jonze’s younger brother. He also composed the score to the might-never-be-released David O.Russell film, “Nailed.”
And there are a few more other interesting details. Adam Kimmel, who also shot Mark Romanek’s melancholy sci-fi film, “Never Let Me Go” (which we’ve been told will probably come out in the fall, btw), and the robot design for “I’m Here” was done by Sonny Gerasimowicz, the same guy who did some of the designs for the monsters in “Where The Wild Things Are.”
Meanwhile, Jones’ recent acting collaboration with David Cross and Will Arnett on a British television pilot, “The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret,” has earned a full season order after airing over the Christmas break.
Of course, a British season is only six 30-minute episodes but as Ricky Gervais continually argues in defense of his ‘Office’ series; quality over quantity, right?
The show is also reportedly looking for an American co-producer which, if successful, means the series will screen stateside as well. Arnett, Cross and co-stars Russell Tovey and Sharon Hogan are all set to return but there is no mention of Jonze. We haven’t seen the pilot and aren’t sure how big his role is but the helmer always seemed too busy for a regular television role, even if its only six episodes.