The Wild Things book Eggers incorporated parts of his own boyhood into the character. The Wild Things The Wild Things is a 2009 full-length novel written by Dave Eggers and published by McSweeney's. The book is based on the screenplay of "Where the Wild Things Are" which Eggers co-wrote. The film is, in turn, based on Maurice Sendak's children's book "Where the Wild Things Are". According to the Acknowledgements of the novel, Eggers, who was asked by Spike Jonze to write the screenplay, was also asked by Sendak to write the novelization. He said his version is different, as Sendak's Max was based
Where the Wild Things Are (film) their children to the set. Some of them can be seen in the film's classroom scene. Michelle Williams was originally cast as the female Wild Thing K.W. only to leave the project after her voice "didn't match the original vision of how the Wild Thing should sound". She was replaced by Lauren Ambrose, and filming continued. In 2008, test footage was leaked onto the internet, garnering mixed reactions. Jonze called the footage "a very early test... to see if our VFX plan for the faces would work," but early fan outcry over the video, along with rumored "scared children" in