In what will surely be naively seen as a check mark for the positive column in the whole alleged Warner Bros.Spike Jonze “Where The Wild Things Are vs ” debacle (like WB gives a shit what he thinks), voice actor Forest Whitaker has spoken out about the film and the director’s vision.
Or rather to be specific, the actor was asked about the film and he applauded what Jonze was attempting to do. Others will spin it as Whitaker hates WB, or the actor going out of his way to defend the movie, but the man was asked a question and answered it, that simple (the Chinese whispers-like blog reporting on ‘Wild Things’ has been chalk fun of wild speculation and unsubstantiated rumors – i.e. all of a sudden Dave Eggers was getting replaced? Total speculation perverted into “fact”).
Reports claimed that the film was too scary for kids and this is what had allegedly unsettled Warner Bros. and speaking to MTV, Whitaker seemed to tentatively confirm those reports. “My children are 9, 11, and 16,” saying he took his children to one of those early ‘Things’ screenings. “It was intense. They liked it, though. They enjoyed it.”
But Whitaker is in the dark about the recut rumors and the overall ‘Wild Things’ imbroglio, but he wants to get to the bottom of it. “I’m going to call Spike and find out what’s going on,” he told MTV. “The thing is, it’s one thing to read [scary stuff] in a book, but when you see an itty-bitty kid running alongside a 10-foot-giant on the side of a cliff, it gets intense. But that’s the point, because we’re representing the things inside of the kid. They represent his struggles, either him being too angry or being confused, or not feeling like he belongs. They’re a gargantuan extension of the way he’s feeling inside.”
Whitaker’s comments suggest that the film is challenging, dark and could be too much for some children (or at least some studios attempting to market this film to someone; potentially children).
“[The dark scenes] are the point of the movie, and I hope that they maintain that point, because I think children can identify with a character who is upset,” he said, citing one key scene of destruction as being particularly controversial. “[The main character Max] built this whole city, and nobody likes it, and he tears it all up. He’s like, ‘Well if you don’t like it, I’m just going to tear it up!’ because he wants so badly for someone to like it.”
Whitaker suggest that Eggers and Jonze’s script has really tried to dig deep at the psychological underpinnings of the Maurice Sendak-penned classic kid’s book that is only 338 pages long. “This kid rolls by himself, no father figure; this is a single family home. His mother ends up having a boyfriend that becomes like a monster to him…people have to build trust with the people their parent starts to date…These are real issues that the character deals with, and I hope that [the filmmakers] continue to explore them, because kids need to see that; they need to see that other kids are dealing with it.”
Whether this interview moves the ‘Wild Things’ homeland security alert back up to orange or down to a saner blue is undetermined as of this writing.
