Famed animator Henry Selick may be coming home, so to speak. After he found so much success working with the brilliant folks at LAIKA on Coraline, Disney hired him to make stop-motion animated films for them. He's was pegged for an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, but his first shot out of the gate was another, major project(possibly titled Shademaker) that Disney was keeping under wraps. Perhaps it was under wraps for a reason, as back in August the Mouse House suddenly cancelled the project. Free to shop it around, a report from Thompson on Hollywood has Selick negotiating with LAIKA to take over the funding.
One of the reasons Disney axed the film was that it was too dark, which is funny since they gave a green light to Tim Burton's Frankenweenie which deals largely in death and monsters. Selick and LAIKA obviously have a tight connection, and since the studio just gave us the great stop-motion ParaNorman, they have no qualms about making a film that's edgier than the norm. There couldn't be a better fit than this.
We still don't know much about the plot, but the site does offer up one new detail. Apparently the story revolves around two brothers, and the film features some breathtaking set designs, including one of Central Park. Here's hoping the deal goes through and we start seeing more of Selick's work on the silver screen.
