Give It A Chance

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Crazy Carradine at Aero<< previous | next >>"Rollicking Struggle"

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 19, 2009 at 2:10 PM

comment #1

George Prager says ...

It's going to make GUMMO look like GRAN TORINO.

Posted by George Prager at March 19, 2009 2:15 PM

comment #2

Gabriel says ...

It's going to fight with Terrence Malick's dinosaurs-in-IMAX movie for best of the year honors.

Posted by Gabriel at March 19, 2009 2:48 PM

comment #3

D.Z. says ...

It's going to be Jonze's Speed Racer, and I don't mean that in a good way.

Posted by D.Z. at March 19, 2009 2:57 PM

comment #4

George Prager says ...

D.Z. says...

Why is Spike Jonze directing a remake of Harry and the Hendersons?

Posted by George Prager at March 19, 2009 2:57 PM

comment #5

D.Z. says ...

George: Actually, I read the original book when I was a kid, too. So I have to say that this is going to be Jonze's Speed Racer, and not in a good way. It's got the opposite problem of Watchmen, which is that it's way too short to make into a movie.

Posted by D.Z. at March 19, 2009 2:59 PM

comment #6

D.Z. says ...

Sorry for the double post.

Posted by D.Z. at March 19, 2009 2:59 PM

comment #7

George Prager says ...

But it has the same problem as the novelization of 1941.

Posted by George Prager at March 19, 2009 3:01 PM

comment #8

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

I hope this thing fails, hugely.

My kids love this book, as I did earlier. As with other things they have read, it inspired days of imaginative play. Contrast that with how they play with a film or TV show as the starting off point - almost always simply parrots what was in the film.

There's a magic to books and every time one is adapted it endangers that magic mostly on account of greed & ego: the greed of studios and the ego of those that want to leech off of the special glow these books have.

I guess I should be thankful most children's stories are too short and flimsy to be rendered into big budget dreck.

Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie at March 19, 2009 3:06 PM

comment #9

D.Z. says ...

Now that I think about it, the Dr. Seuss stuff was way too short to make into a movie, too, no? The part of the Carrey Grinch I saw on tv turned me off from watching more; I hear Horton is actually pretty good, though. But then it's animated, so that's probably why.

Posted by D.Z. at March 19, 2009 3:10 PM

comment #10

CanCan says ...

D.Z. says ...
Sorry for the double post.

Of all things you posted this is what you apologize for?

Posted by CanCan at March 19, 2009 3:27 PM

comment #11

dukedog says ...

My kid is a book nut and a movie nut, so I am going to give her the book about a month before the movie is out to get her all jazzed and ready for the movie version. I'm curious to see which she likes better.

Posted by dukedog at March 19, 2009 3:58 PM

comment #12

KC says ...

I don't need any convincing, looks cool as hell to me! I tend towards being down on adaptations of good books, but you guys are talking like this is something along the lines of the live-action/computer-animated Seuss movies...do you hiss at the mention of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory too?

Also now that we have a handsome and progressive black president in America I think it's time to admit that Speed Racer basically ruled.

Posted by KC at March 19, 2009 4:08 PM

comment #13

MilkMan says ...

Horton Hears a Who is one of the best animated films I have seen in the last ten years, and I've seen all of them, as I have three young boys ages 2-7.. It's better than Wall-E, Monsters Inc.,Shrek, Surf's Up, Happy Feet, etc. The only animated film better than Horton is The Incredibles. The sequences set in Whoville are astonishing in their level of detail and beauty, and the movie's theme's are deep and complicated, dealing with faith and conformity and identity and parents and kids and education and local politics and the end of the world.

I am not a huge fan of the Jonze/Gondry/Kaufman media-industrial empire. And why anyone would get excited about Dave Fucking Eggers writing a screenplay I don't know.

Posted by MilkMan at March 19, 2009 4:10 PM

comment #14

Ryansi51 says ...

MilkMan has three young boys?

*shudder*

locked in your basement, i hope.

Posted by Ryansi51 at March 19, 2009 4:19 PM

comment #15

The Playlist says ...

I don't mean to overly defend it, who knows how it will turn out -- i don't love that poster honestly -- but those that are assuming its too short a book to adapt: I'll have to assume you haven't read the script, right?

Cause it works and it's great (despite the fact it unconventionally reads more like a story than a screenplay).

Posted by The Playlist at March 19, 2009 4:23 PM

comment #16

Sabina E says ...

YYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Sabina E at March 19, 2009 4:36 PM

comment #17

Phatang! says ...

Just a reminder: the book is like a hundred words long. There's no story. And Spike Jonze isn't exactly the best with narrative. So this will either be very weird and trippy (hopefully in a good way) or a lame studio-scripted piece of shit that we'll have to pretend never existed (okay, obviously it'll be the latter...)

Posted by Phatang! at March 19, 2009 4:52 PM

comment #18

Monument says ...

I'd like to believe that Dave Eggers wouldn't turn out a "studio-scripted piece of shit," but who knows. My hopes are up for this one.

Posted by Monument at March 19, 2009 4:55 PM

comment #19

D.Z. says ...

KC: Speed Racer would be good if it had speed and racing. And Willy Wonka was made back when regular cokeheads, and not executive cokeheads, were allowed to produce movies.

Posted by D.Z. at March 19, 2009 6:23 PM

comment #20

MovieBob says ...

Speed Racer was an absolutely perfect execution of exactly what it wanted to be - whether or not what it wanted to be was GOOD is up to you.

Posted by MovieBob at March 19, 2009 7:56 PM

comment #21

The Playlist says ...

Ok, so no one here read the script and no one knows what they're talking about, check.

Posted by The Playlist at March 19, 2009 8:37 PM

comment #22

BurmaShave says ...

D.Z. says...

I liked it better when it was called L.I.E.

Posted by BurmaShave at March 19, 2009 8:52 PM

comment #23

D.Z. says ...

Burma: Replace L.I.E. with Petersen's Neverending Story, and I'll agree with you.

Posted by D.Z. at March 19, 2009 10:36 PM

comment #24

Phatang! says ...

Monument: I'm sure Eggers had some great ideas and turned in an interesting first draft. But I'm equally sure all that stuff was stripped from the final product and Eggers' soul was sucked out of him by this corrupt, creativity-slaughtering system.

Posted by Phatang! at March 19, 2009 11:09 PM

comment #25

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

D.Z. Author Profile Page says ...

"Sorry for the double post."

Now that you have started down the long and winding road of apology, you have years and years of incoherence to answer for.

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at March 20, 2009 12:01 AM

comment #26

lazespud says ...

CanCan says:
D.Z. says ...
Sorry for the double post.

Of all things you posted this is what you apologize for?

HAH! That is really fuckin funny.

I am mostly interested in the inevitable Vanity Fair or New Yorker piece that details the disastrous production that finally led to a release date.

Posted by lazespud at March 20, 2009 1:43 AM

comment #27

LFF says ...

HE is getting sour lately. Had a big rip on Rob Zombie party a couple days ago, and now the Spike Jones slam fest.

I declare tomorrow to be

(spinning wheel)

Hate on Brad Siberling day! Congrats Brad. Step up and get your HE negativity prize.

Posted by LFF at March 20, 2009 1:59 AM

comment #28

BurmaShave says ...

Brad Siberling is a talented filmmaker who has never found quite the right project to showcase it. MOONLIGHT MILE is hella underrated, Hoffman's best work in 10 years.

That being said, he gets to go home to Amy Brenneman every night, so fuck him. Fuck Him to hell!

Posted by BurmaShave at March 20, 2009 2:27 AM

comment #29

Rich S. says ...

With that photo, they really blew the tag line. Should have been "Let the wild rumpus start!"

Posted by Rich S. at March 20, 2009 5:12 AM

comment #30

George Prager says ...

BurmaShave says...

D.Z. says...I liked it better when it was called For the Boys.

D.Z. says...

Burma: Replace For the Boys with Howard's Willow, and I'll agree with you.

Posted by George Prager at March 20, 2009 6:21 AM

comment #31

JChasse says ...

I liked DZ better when he was called Rainman

Posted by JChasse at March 20, 2009 7:47 AM

comment #32

MilkMan says ...

Brad Siberling hired Robert Bardo to kill Rebecca Schaeffer.

Posted by MilkMan at March 20, 2009 8:32 AM

comment #33

MilkMan says ...

Yoko Ono hired Mark David Chapman to kill John Lennon.

Posted by MilkMan at March 20, 2009 10:44 AM

comment #34

George Prager says ...

I liked MilkMan better when he was called Zippy the Pinhead.

Posted by George Prager at March 20, 2009 10:49 AM

comment #35

MilkMan says ...

I wasn't the one who came up with the whole let's pile on Brad Siberling thing. I'm just following orders. I would have been a great Nazi.

Posted by MilkMan at March 20, 2009 11:51 AM

comment #36

Edward says ...

I miss Zippy the Phinhead. Great comic.

Posted by Edward at March 20, 2009 12:46 PM

comment #37

D.Z. says ...

Milkman: Replace Yoko with Reagan, and I'll agree with you.

Posted by D.Z. at March 20, 2009 3:23 PM

comment #38

MickTravis says ...

Yes, Reagan hired Mark David Chapman to kill Lennon. Yoko hired John Hinckley to kill Reagan.

Posted by MickTravis at March 20, 2009 4:34 PM

comment #39

D.Z. says ...

Mick: Bush Sr. was friends with Hinckley, so do the math on that.

Posted by D.Z. at March 20, 2009 7:04 PM

comment #40

MilkMan says ...

DZ, the connections between the Bush and Hinckley families are very, very real and very, very strange in light of what happened. I agree with you. Anyone who bothered to do even a little light reading would see that this is not something someone made up. But most people can't handle stuff like that. They get defensive, call you a nut-job, and so on.

Posted by MilkMan at March 20, 2009 7:38 PM

comment #41

D.Z. says ...

Milkman: I might just consider it coincidence, too, if Bush Sr. wasn't head of the CIA.

Posted by D.Z. at March 21, 2009 12:42 AM

comment #42

yokek says ...

I saw on tv turned me off from watching more; I hear Horton is actually pretty good,Evening Gowns Formal Gowns Shop prom dresses, formal dresses, prom shoes, 2010 designer prom gowns at dres4sale.

Posted by yokek at March 11, 2010 8:21 PM

comment #43