Bizarre Spike Jonze Short

Last February, director Spike Jonez (Where the Wild Things Are) agreed to shoot a video for Kanye West’s song, “See You in My Nightmares,” which was then expanded into a creative, short film – shot at a nightclub over two days.

The end result is an uneasy glimpse of Mr. West at his worst, premonitions of his MTV Video Awards appearance abound, and the ending says a lot about the musician’s own battered image of himself.  It’s a fine piece, and will soon be available on iTunes.

Unfortunately for Spike Jonez, it was leaked last week with the help of…Kanye West.

“We Were Once a Fairytale” was leaked to the Internet and posted on Mr. West’s official Web site, kanyeuniversecity.com. Within a couple of days it was taken down without explanation.  Mr. Jonze said the film was accidentally leaked from the postproduction studio of a friend, and that Mr. West did not realize that it was not meant to be circulated yet. “I think he was like: ‘Oh, it’s out. I’ll link to it,’ ” Mr. Jonze said. (A representative for Mr. West declined to elaborate.)

NYT has the whole story here and here.

“We Were Once a Fairytale” (embedded video)

(Photo: Spike Jonez, Inc. & Getting Out Our Dreams Pictures)