‘Coraline’ Director Trying Live-Action…Again?

Henry Selick the director of Coraline has left animation, at least for the time being, to do a live-action film based on the book A Tale Dark & Grimm written by Adam Gidwitz. The story follows Hansel and Gretel who escape their own fairy tale and wind up getting caught up in eight other Grimm (or Grimm-inspired) stories along the way. While the basic story sounds really interesting, there seems to be some apprehension from fans as to whether Selick will be able to pull this off. Selick’s prior less popular films include James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone, the latter being his least successful film to date. Selick does have some successes under his belt, namely Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Selick will have his hands on the script along with Jon Gunn and John W. Mann (both are also writers for DreamWorks’  B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations). Selick had previously been working on the unfinished stop-motion project called The Shadow King. However, after Disney pulled the plug on the project last year, leaving the project halfway completed. Selick attempted to shop the project around to different animation studios such as Laika, but they all passed as well. We thought the film was back in action when a studio called K5 International picked it up, but this news and Selick’s apparent temporary departure from animation seems to prove otherwise. The film will be produced by Kamala Films and the distributed by FilmNation.   via Cartoon Brew

Do you think we’ll ever see The Shadow King? What do you think about Selick adapting A Tale of Dark & Grimm?