Coraline Ready to Roll

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Early art fro CoralineHow odd is it that I was just thinking about the long-discussed adaptation off Neil Gaiman’s fantastic children’s book, Coraline (get the book through Evilshop), and all of a sudden today IGN puts up an exclusive chat with the film’s director, Henry Selick.

“I’ve been working on getting this going for awhile, but we’re in heavy preproduction [now],” the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas told the site. “I’ve rewritten the script many, many times. It’s very solid. And we’re recording voices and most of the characters are designed. We’re starting to build sets. People have heard all sorts of rumors, but it’s a stop-motion film. There will be very little CG at all. I mean, even the effects – we’re going to try to do most everything we can by hand.”

That is the first solid bit of info I’ve heard about it being straight-forward stop motion, and it warms the cockles of my black little heart. For those not in the know, Coraline is about the titular child, a little girl who is bored to tears by her new home in the middle of nowhere. Until, that is, she finds a secret door that leads to a alternate reality of her real world, in which everything is far too good to be true.

Selick acknowledges that a fine line must be walked with the film, as going too dark will scare away too many kids. “Look what’s happening with live-action and what kids are exposed to. The last Harry Potter was very powerful and frightening You know, a kid gets murdered right in front of everyone.” he continues. “The Lord of the Rings films are very dark and powerful. So if that can be done in live-action and have huge success, why should animation be kind of strapped into a pretty stupidly narrow field? You can’t compete with Pixar and DreamWorks. You’ve got to do something else.” Smart man, that Harry.

Because it’s going to be stop motion that means we’ve got a lot longer to wait before the film is a reality, but it sounds like it’s going to be well worth it. Be sure to click here to read the entire chat with the director, and click here for a more detailed synopsis via production house Laika Entertainment’s site.

Johnny Butane

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