Media Macaroni

As we all now know, Spike Jonze is directing the film version of Where The Wild Things Are. Earlier this week, this trailer for the film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox started circulating, by one of my other favorite directors, Wes Anderson. 

We’ll see how the adaptation of the novel goes, but one thing’s for certain. This movie looks unmistakably like a Wes Anderson movie. And let’s not forget Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (though let’s do forget about Ron Howard’s Grinch). It got me thinking about other combinations of directors and children’s books I’d like to see. This is my list so far:

• Michel Gondry’s Harold and the Purple Crayon – can you imagine the imagery that Gondry would give to this already imaginative classic? 
• Martin Scorcese’s No, David! – David could get into some real trouble with Scorcese at the helm. 
• The Coen Brother’s The House With The Clock in Its Walls – I’d really like to see the Coen Brother’s take on John Bellair’s dark classic. It’d be truly creepy.
• Sophia Coppola’s The Hunger Games – Hunger Games is a hard one to pick, but Coppola would bring the right amount of beauty and loneliness to it, I think.
• McG’s Captain Underpants – for Captain Underpants, you need the right mix of screwball comedy and awesome action sequences. I can only imagine what the soundtrack for this one would be like. 
• Paul Thomas Anderson’s Charlie and Lola – Anderson would do well with the ensemble cast of Charlie, Lola, and their friends. 
• Quentin Tarantino’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Tarantino could make Alexander have a really, really bad day. 
• David Lynch’s Big Orange Splot – who else could tell the tale of the weird events that take place in Daniel Pinkwater’s suburban neighborhood, as the neighbors start to build houses that look like their dreams. Dennis Hopper as Mr. Plumbean, perhaps? 

OK, what directors and books am I missing? And, can someone please get me Ethan Coen on the line? That’s the one I’d most like to see. 

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.