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Disney Passes On Henry Selick's Still Secret New Stop-Motion Film

by Alex Billington
August 14, 2012
Source: Variety

Another dead project to report on (in addition to Eastern Promises 2), but this one makes me a bit sad, or possibly worried. Reports from Variety/Deadline are going around that Walt Disney has decided to shelf, or specifically to "not to move forward with", the newest Henry Selick stop-motion animation project, still untitled. Selick is the director of Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas and had been working a secret new project entirely on his own at Shademaker Productions in San Francisco, partnered with Disney. But they've decided not to continue development, however will let them "shop the property to another studio."

After finishing up Coraline with Laika in 2009, Henry Selick left that studio and went on to develop on his own, eventually partnering with Disney on a few more projects, none of which were revealed. Since it takes so long to make a stop-motion movie (they only get a few seconds every day) they had to pull the plug on this early if they wanted to halt. Their sources "said from a creative and scheduling standpoint, the [film] wasn't where it needed to be to meet its planned release date and the studio decided not to continue production as a result." Deadline adds "it just wasn’t coming together in a manner that pleased the studio."

While I wish we at least had some idea what this new Selick project was even about, the veteran animation filmmaker has a number of other possibilities on his plate instead. Not only did he get attached to adapt Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book, but Tim Burton has apparently been trying to develop a Nightmare Before Christmas sequel, and he may just call on Selick to get involved in some way. You never know? Only time will tell what happens, and while this is sad news for the 150 people who were working on the project, it sounds like Selick may have other things to move on to. We'll let you know when we hear any more news.

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