It’s been two and a half years since principal shooting wrapped on Where the Wild Things Are. While Max Records and his father Shawn haven’t drifted into complete Hollywood radio silence– they flew to Serbia, for instance, so Max could shoot The Brothers Bloom– they’ve remained for the most part sheltered from the PR machine in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. On the morning of the big Warner Brothers presentation at Comic Con, Max was sent on his first whirlwind publicity tour. Shuffling through a series of hotel junkets and convention center green rooms for photo shoots and interviews, the younger Record found himself at the mercy of media outlets instructing him to lounge on piles of pillows bearing the cadaverous visage of Robert Pattinson, hordes of preemptive megafans clamoring for autographs, and busty entertainment journalists leaning in closer than most tween boys are comfortable with.
Overwhelmed by the frenzy, the Records escaped to their hotel room to recover after the panel. Max and his younger brother Sam ate room service grilled cheese sandwiches while they filled me in on the details of the Portland Trailblazers’ dramatic showdown with the Houston Rockets. Since he’d been through the standard behind-the-scenes questions all day, I wanted to give Max a chance to relax and talk a little about himself and his interests outside the movie. Check out our interview below, where Max fills me in on the work of Osamu Tezuka, his favorite Portland bands, and local legends of Matt Groening’s mischievous childhood.
Shawn Records, father of Max, was our on-set observer. I love his photos. I would say he related to the aesthetic family of Joel Sternfeld and William Eggleston, his photos have a delicate wit and affection to them. I love how much of him comes through his photos. a sweet kind man with a keen eye and always soft spoken and understated. Please check out his photos at his website too. I’m lucky enough to have a print of the boy with his head in the bush. I think it is of Max in their backyard a few years ago.
The other added benefit of Shawn being a photographer that I didn’t realize until long after we cast Max was that by growing up with your dad always with a camera in hand you become used to having your picture taken and not even thinking about it, so Max is very unselfconscious in front of the camera. And also very natural because Shawn is not the kind of dad who is real loud, trying to force a shot yelling “Hey everyone, look over here! Hug your mom! Smile!” he couldn’t be more opposite actually. And that is what is so special about his pictures. Patient and observed.
Our friend Matt Jones has a photo show up at Colette in Paris. Many great pictures including pictures of none other than our own Max Records and the one and only Mark Gonzales. Matt shot photos on set a couple times. I think he is going to publish them this fall in a magazine. These were the only pictures I got before I got in trouble. Also, if you’ve never been to the store it is three floors of cool stuff.
High school noir mystery Brick propelled director Rian Johnson into cult status four years ago, but The Brothers Bloom is poised to introduce a much wider audience to the filmmaker’s anachronistic charm. Depicting the bond of brotherhood through a team of fraternal con artists played by dramaturgical heartthrobs Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo (who also appears in Where the Wild Things Are), the film is an epic adventure pastiche spanning the globe, chock full of aesthetic eye candy. In the process of pulling off “one last con” on bored millionaire mark Rachel Weisz (who actually turns out to be kind of hilarious– who knew?), the titular Blooms weave a twist-filled tale that’s just plain old-fashioned fun. If only all action-packed popcorn films were as exciting and stimulating as this! Check out the trailer, and while you’re on that page, note the weird Photoshop chop-job some marketers did on the production still posted above– who shoulders are those, really, Ruffalo?
Also check out the clip below of the opening sequence in which Max Records AKA Max from WTWA plays young Ruffalo. Mark Recommended him for the job after working together on Wild Things. We love Max!
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