WTWTA: The Novel

Normally novelizations of films are, well, not so good. It’s not to say that the authors who write them aren’t talented (because I know some of them and they certainly are) but there’s just so much you can do trying to write a novelization of GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA. So it would be somewhat surprising to learn a Pulitzer Prize nominated author would be writing a novelization of a movie. That’s exactly what’s happening though with the release of “The Wild Things,” the novel based on the movie based on the children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are.”

Author Dave Eggers, who wrote the script for the Spike Jonze directed WILD THINGS film, fell so in love with the story during his writing, he asked creator Maurice Sendak if he could “loosely adapt” the story into a novel. Sendak agreed and coming this fall we’ll have a much longer and presumably much more adult telling of Max’s adventures. Here’s what the publisher says about the book:

The Wild Things — based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay cowritten with Spike Jonze — is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control. His father is gone, his mother is spending time with a younger boyfriend, his sister is becoming a teenager and no longer has interest in him. At the same time, Max finds himself capable of startling acts of wildness: he wears a wolf suit, bites his mom, and can’t always control his outbursts. During a fight at home, Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicated when Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Funny, dark, and alive, The Wild Things is a timeless and time-tested tale for all ages.

Honestly that sounds exactly like the screenplay so I’m not sure exactly what else Eggers has included to expand the length of his script to a novel. I guess that’s what we’ll have to read and find out… Thanks to Slashfilm for the heads up.