Spike Jonze Talks Arcade Fire´s Influence on Where The Wild Things Are

As we all know by now, Arcade Fire’s partially re-recorded version of “Wake Up” provides the score to the hype-catalyzing trailer to Where The Wild Things Are, and though previous reports suggested the band’s music would be prominently featured in the film, it was actually Karen O’s work that ended up providing the full soundtrack. Don’t worry, though, Arcade Fire’s influence on the finished product is not to be underestimated.

Here’s what Spike Jonze told Aint It Cool News (via Playlist):

The initial trailer… that Arcade Fire song [“Wake Up”] was something I’d used along the way in cutting stuff. Before we shot the movie, I cut together this mood piece; I used footage from E.T., RATCATCHER and THE BLACK STALLION, and cut together this mood piece to the song. I showed it to the crew to give them a sense of the tone and the feeling of the film before we shot. It was a way to get everyone to the same place. I wrote the whole script to Arcade Fire’s FUNERAL, and I listened to that song a lot. That record is thematically very connected to the film. So it seems so perfect that we got to put that in the trailer.

Meanwhile, if you still need to get your Arcade Fire soundtrack fix, the first teaser of a score for Richard Kelly’s The Box by Win Butler, Régine Chassagne and Owen Pallett is now streaming here (via Exclaim!).