Henry Selick, best known for directing critically acclaimed stop-motion films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, is back on the animation scene with his first feature film since 2009’s Coraline.

It was recently announced that Selick will direct a new stop-motion animated feature produced specifically for Netflix, titled Wendell and Wild. Jordan Peele, recent recipient of the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Get Out, and his Comedy Central series partner Keegan-Michael Key will both voice main characters, a pair of “scheming demon brothers.”

Wendell and Wild is based on an original idea by Selick, who will write the script along with Peele and Clay McLeod Chapman. A deal has already been struck with publisher Simon & Schuster for Selick and Chapman to write a book to be published near the film’s release.

The project will be Netflix’s second time distributing a high-profile, stop-motion animated film; Netflix won an auction for its first stop-motion film, Bubbles, about Michael Jackson’s pet chimp, at the last Cannes Film Festival. That picture is being co-directed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) and Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox).

Wendell and Wild will be produced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein for The Gotham Group, Peele under his Monkeypaw banner, and Selick, with Sara Serata co-producing. Executive producers include Win Rosenfeld for Monkeypaw, Peter Principato and Joel Zadak for Principato-Young, and Lindsay Williams and Eddie Gamarra for Gotham Group.

Selick’s big break in animation came when Tim Burton asked him to direct The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993. Since then, Selick has worked on a number of projects, most notably the computer-animated short film Moongirl in 2006 and Laika Studios’ feature-length debut Coraline
in 2009.

Via Deadline.

What do you think of this announcement? Are you excited about Henry Selick’s return to feature-length animation?

Edited by: Kelly Conley