Coraline Filmmakers Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick Reuniting for New Adaptation

Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane could be Selick's next work, if he can find a studio to back it.

By Russ Burlingame

With both The Sandman and Good Omens delivering big numbers on streaming platforms, it's no surprise that we are in store for more film and TV adaptations of Neil Gaiman's work. One surprising -- but welcome -- bit of news dropped today, with word that the author is reteaming with The Nightmare Before Christmas filmmaker Henry Selick for his next project. Based on Gaiman's novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Selick says that the film adaptation will share DNA with their prior collaboration, Coraline, one of the most beloved animated movies in recent history.

"Instead of a child going to this other world with a monstrous mother, it's a monstrous mother who comes into our world to wreak havoc on a kid's life," Selick told Variety by way of comparison.

Selick further said that he considers the movie "almost a sequel" to Coraline, and that he believes The Ocean at the End of the Lane to be some of Gaiman's best writing.

Selick says that he is currently shopping a 35-page treatment and plenty of concept art around to studios. Without giving details about any particular deals, he suggested that ShadowMachine (Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio) and Coraline studio Laika were two obvious frontrunners. During a panel at Annecy Animation Festival on Tuesday, Selick said that Laika has "the best talent and the best resources," and that CEO Travis Knight is a genius.

Knight and Laika are currently working on Wildwood, an animated adaptation of the novel of the same name. The filmmaker is also attached to Mark Wahlberg's The Six Billion Dollar Man as well as Amazon/MGM's Masters of the Universe. 

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Per the same Variety story, Selick also has plans to revive The Shadow King, a movie he was in and out of development with for years. While he has a few minutes of finalized footage from the time he was developing it with Pixar, his current plan is apparently to develop it as a graphic novel, in the hopes that he can then sell it as an adaptation.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane was originally released in 2013. It centers on a man who returns to his hometown for the first time in years, to attend a funeral. While there, he reflects on his childhood and on the fantastical stories of a local girl who insisted the pond behind her house was an ocean. The trip back home brings a flood of forgotten or repressed memories.

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