Gustavo TurnerMTV is reporting that popular-yet-monotonous pop group Arcade Fire and eccentric trust-fund-skater director Spike Jonze are collaborating on a secretive movie project (a “short film”).
That faint sound you just heard is the controlled explosion of thousands of heads of hipsters (aka Pabstafarians) and Silver Lake stroller mommies bursting in artsy joy at the very thought of two of their favorite things making twee art together.
(If the underwhelming performance of similar joints Where the Wild Things Are and Away We Go are anything to go by, though, the particular demographic that has kept Dave Eggers in business for years might not be so easily convinced to leave their recently purchased condos to endorse this type of cinema directly targeted at them. Might work for a viral thing, though.)
Still, Arcade Fire remains extremely popular with a large number of under-30s (and, mysteriously, with David Bowie), even though to our jaded ears most of their songs are invariably “uplifting,” anthemic melodies that make college kids all riled up about politics they'll forget about after they get a corporate job, go to med school, or discover coke is sorta legal as long as you stay inside a Williamsburg bar.
From MTV's article:
On Thursday, movie blog /Film reported that “Adaptation”/ “Being John Malkovich” director Spike Jonze is working on a “secret film project” with Canadian rock band the Arcade Fire, which is scheduled to shoot in Austin, Texas, and revolve around a concept of “friends growing apart.”
/Film also wrote that Jonze — who last year collaborated with Kanye West on the short film “We Were Once a Fairytale” — is casting “mostly late-teen actors” for the project, and that it would be another short film. Additional details were not provided.
On Friday (April 9), MTV News reached out to a spokesperson for Jonze, who confirmed pretty much everything in the /Film report but declined to reveal further details, saying, “Spike will be in Austin shooting a short film which is a collaboration with Arcade Fire.”
A spokesperson for the Arcade Fire had not responded to MTV News' request for comment at press time.
The still-untitled short film isn't the first time Jonze and the Arcade Fire have worked together: last year, the band re-recorded a version of their song “Wake Up” for use in the trailer of Jonze's most recent feature film, “Where the Wild Things Are.” It's not known whether the project will be used to promote AF's upcoming third album, which is reportedly due later this summer.
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