Spike Jonze

The big-screen cinematic adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" bears the unmistakable stamp of its director Spike Jonze, but Steve Newman played an integral role in helping the hipster auteur realize his creative vision. The Australian Cinematographers Society member was tasked with filming the miniatures created for the movie -- specifically, a detailed cityscape constructed on a tabletop that depicted one character's idealized vision of an alternate land where he lived with his fellow furry "wild things."

When Karen O was trying to compose music for the rumpus scene in the feature film adaptation of the beloved children's book "Where the Wild Things Are," she would think about writing for kids -- and run into a wall. "The first few versions kept falling prey to being upbeat and happy," said O, the lead singer for the rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. "As soon as we'd start doing that, I felt specious, like I was writing for a Muppets movie." So the 30-year-old songwriter, who is not a parent and had never written anything specifically aimed at children before, stopped thinking about the audience.

Something HAS gone very wrong with "Where the Wild Things Are," the much-anticipated Spike Jonze adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book. The $80-million film, with a script by literary cool guy Dave Eggers, was filmed largely in the second half of 2006 in Australia. It was originally slated for release this October but got pushed back to the fall of 2009. Last week it disappeared entirely from the Warner Bros. release schedule, a sign of continuing troubles.

Spike JONZE hardly sounds like a pioneer, much less an auteur, when he speaks about music videos. Instead of trying to defend music videos as a filmmaking art or a cultural document, Jonze talks like a kid recounting the best scenes in his comic book collection: "Did you see that video with Joan Collins taking a bath? That's just perfect." (Video: Badly Drawn Boy's "Give Me Something.") "Do you remember that video where it goes from a single-cell organism to a fat man? That was amazing."

A surprisingly relaxed, down-home and often funny Al Gore appeared on screen Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, thanks to a hot young movie director who exposed American audiences to the inside of John Malkovich's brain. Spike Jonze, director of the quirky, Oscar-nominated comedy "Being John Malkovich," was hired by the Gore campaign to make a brief documentary about a day in the life of the candidate.