Henry Selick’s currently-untitled next film may be getting a second life.
Though the “Coraline” director’s latest stop-motion creation was recently scrapped by incoming Disney CEO Alan Horn, who decided to take a $50 million write off on the Pixar project rather than move forward with production, according to Thompson on Hollywood stop-motion animation studio Laika may be stepping in to finance the project.
Selick is currently in discussions with the studio, which also produced Selick’s 2009 feature “Coraline,” a dark 3D fairytale based on the Neil Gaiman book of the same name. The filmmaker also previously served as Laika’s supervising director, though he now runs his own stop-motion production shingle, Cinderbiter Productions in San Francisco.
Disney had slated the untitled project, which was once called “ShadeMaker,” for an October 4, 2013 release before shutting it down.
Selick is also attached to direct an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 2008 fantasy novel “The Graveyard Book,” which was originally expected to begin production sometime following the completion of his Pixar project.
Laika’s last film, Chris Butler and Sam Fell’s “ParaNorman,” has so far grossed over $82 million worldwide.