The Strange But True Stories Behind Your Favorite Childhood Books

Spike Jones Almost Turned Harold And The Purple Crayon Into A Movie

Photo Credit: @Literary_Harry / Twitter

In the mid-1990s, Spike Jonze tried to make a film version of Harold and the Purple Crayon. He worked on the project for a year and a half. The movie was supposed to be half animation, half live action, with a soundtrack by the Flaming Lips.

Jones slowly lost creative control of the project, until the plug was finally pulled, but he learned a lot from the experience and went on to make several wonderfully unusual films.