Henry Selick talks future projects

Fans of stop-motion animation will be thrilled to hear that Henry Selick (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS) has a full slate of projects planned for the near future. Selick is currently directing an adaptation of the children’s novel THE WALL AND THE WING as well as a CG-animated short film entitled MOONGIRL.

You may be surprised to hear that this icon of stop-motion is embracing computer animation, but Selick promises that he is going to do something groundbreaking. “ A lot of CG tends to be clean. That’s what it does well. So we’re trying to add textures, dirt, tone and good, clear design,” said Selick in an interview with Animation Magazine. “In my mind, it’s what THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS did for stop-motion… This, in a much smaller way being a short film and all, is a pretty bold step for CG”

THE WALL IN THE WING is a feature-length film set in an alternate version of New York and focuses on modern wizardry. This will probably be computer-animated as well. “It’s one of these projects that could have gone live-action, but I just think it’s actually going to reach a broader audience and just work better [in animation]... The tradition here is stop-motion, but we’re moving into CG… But I wouldn’t say right now definitively which way it would go. Probably CG.,” said Selic. “I’m still a great believer in stop-motion and will continue to push for that for the right project. But for this one, the scale feels bigger and feels more like a CG world. With stop-motion, I generally think that smaller, more confined worlds work better”

Selick will follow-up these projects with feature-length adaptations of CORALINE (by Neil Gaiman) and THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX (by Raold Dahl.) (Source: Animation Magazine)