The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline director Henry Selick has reasserted his desire to make a stop-motion version of one of Neil Gaiman’s greatest stories.
Henry Selick is out and about at the moment, promoting his new film, Wendell & Wild, but that isn’t stopping him from talking up a project that he’s been chasing for years: a stop motion adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane.
Selick has already had one crack at adapting The Ocean At The End Of The Lane that didn’t come to pass, but he feels that with Gaiman’s increased profile of late, should Wendell & Wild do well, the time might be right to reunite with the author and the animation studio LAIKA to tackle the project (which has already been adapted into a West End play).
Speaking about his dream project, Selick told EW that “it was set up as live-action, and then Neil gave me a chance with it, which would be amazing as a stop-motion film. But it also would have to be PG-13, which honestly is, I think, a draw for 10-year-olds. They don’t want to see G or PG,”
“From us, that’s how it has to be done. I’m in touch with Neil, and he’s become super successful with some of his series. The more involved Neil is with adaptations, the better those projects are, I think, starting primarily with Good Omens … We just have to see how Wendell & Wild goes. We’ve got some really good reviews, and then we just have to see if people watch it to keep making another one”.
So there you go. If you want to see the creative team behind Coraline reunite to tackle another Gaiman classic, all you have to do is watch Wendell & Wild when it hits Netflix next week. Of course, the streaming platform are already very much in the Neil Gaiman business have splashed the cash on a lavish adaptation of his graphic novel series, The Sandman.
Should Wendell & Wild prove to be a success, perhaps the streamer will take Gaiman’s beautiful story about a man drawn back into a magical encounter from his childhood and commission Selick and LAIKA to adapt it into a stop motion film for us all to enjoy. Should any more details on this story emerge, you can be sure we’ll let you know.
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