As Eggers describes the process in the Acknowledgments of The Wild Things, So when Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers set to making a full-length film out of the book, they had a lot of decisions to make.

The Wild Things from Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are The essential wildness, the heart of the adventure, is left unwritten. This is what made the book so innovative when it was first published, and so memorable to generations of children. In between are a series of wordless pages filled with Sendak's illustrations of the wild rumpus. The text totals less than 300 words, and almost all of those go to describing Max's antics before he leaves home, his trip to the island, and his decision to go back home. The prospect of them expounding on wildness was tantalizing.The original book is such a blank slate, after all. They seem to be two incorrigible boys themselves. Jonze and Eggers are both extremely popular artists, banner-carriers for the unconventional-reimagining crowd. This project got a lot of people excited.

His first order as king, one of the most famous lines in children's literature, is, “Let the wild rumpus start!” After a few pages of rumpus, Max sails back to his bedroom, where his dinner is waiting for him.Director Spike Jonze and author/editor Dave Eggers have recently adapted the children's book into a film, and Eggers has also published a novel, The Wild Things, based on the screenplay. From his room he sails to an island where he meets the Wild Things and they make him their king. Max is a young boy who gets sent to his room without dinner. Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak's iconic picture book, is a celebration of this abandon. So when you put an incorrigible boy in the company of seven creatures, with no adults in sight, there are virtually no limits to what can happen There are no social norms or bedtimes they will observe. Take, for example, every Disney movie ever made. If it's not human, it can say anything it wants. Perhaps the only other characters who burst with such unfiltered spirit are creatures – animals, aliens, talking furniture. There's something about their unabashed candor that makes us wistful and giddy at the same time. From Huck Finn to Home Alone, the story of young, reckless boys who can rein in neither their actions nor their hearts of gold is one we've told ourselves over and over again.

By Dave EggersMcSweeney's Books, 2009Americans have a great tradition of incorrigible boys.

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