Spike Jonze Brings Wild Things to Life

Law Abiding Citizen also enjoys strong opening weekend

(NEWSER) - Where the Wild Things Are ran wild at the weekend box office, exceeding expectations by doing $32.5 million worth of business. Spike Jonze's first foray into children's cinema earned the director his strongest opening weekend ever. "I can't imagine too many people who could do what Spike did," an exec with distributor Warner Bros. tells USA Today. The live-action adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic book topped Law Abiding Citizen, which also beat forecasts. The top five: More»

Spike Jonze's melancholy fantasy gorgeous, heartfelt, uneventful

(NEWSER) - Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are takes a 10-sentence children’s book and turns it into a full-length movie that’s not really for kids at all. But most critics liked it anyway. Here’s what they’re saying:

• “Parents and tykes expecting the next Shrek will be sorely disappointed if not a little freaked out,” writes Ty Burr of the Boston Globe. “The movie is a wild thing,” and at times “feels genuinely dangerous, wired to explode.”

Admirers count the ways revered kids' author will be missed

(NEWSER) - A sample of the tributes to Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak, who died today at 83:

• Andrew Leonard, Salon : Parents who loved Sendak's books as kids (like Leonard) read them to their own kids with even greater zeal. Thus, "Sendak planted an immortal virus in the culture, a self-fulfilling prophecy of rumpus, an affirmation that the child’s-eye view of the world made total sense. I thank him dearly for it."
• Peter Dobrin, Philadelphia Inquirer : "In both his portrayal of the terrors of being a child and the deep flaws of adults, Mr. Sendak was a throwback to an earlier era in children's literature, when 19th century books like like Heinrich Hoffmann's Der Struwwelpeter lacked the sweetness and justice of a well-ordered world. "

Died from complications from a recent stroke

(NEWSER) - Maurice Sendak, author/illustrator of the beloved Where the Wild Things Are, has died at age 83, reports the New York Times . The cause was complications from a recent stroke, says his editor. The Times offers a glowing profile of Sendak and the many books he was known for penning and illustrating, which were "roundly praised, intermittently censored, and occasionally eaten," writes Margalit Fox. She notes that his "lifelong melancholia"—the result, in part, of a long string of childhood illnesses, being raised in the shadow of the Holocaust, and the homosexuality he hid from his parents—made its way into his books. More»

He's 'wrong, of course,' counters Dave Eggers in Vanity Fair

(NEWSER) - Maurice Sendak may be 83, but he’s not slowing down—in fact, he may be picking up speed. Sendak has a new book coming out, the first in 30 years that he’s both written and illustrated, writes Dave Eggers in Vanity Fair . Bumble-Ardy, about a pig whose family never celebrates his birthday, is dark in tone; but then, so is Sendak. “People from New York have been calling, to see if I’m still alive. When I answer the phone, you can hear the disappointment in their voice,” he says with his typical "pitch-black" humor. More»