As Beowulf dominates the worldwide box office, co-writer Neil Gaiman is getting excited about the upcoming animated adaptation of his best-selling fantasy novel Coralline. The author told SCI FI Channel’s SCI FI Wire that ten minutes of LAIKA’s stop-motion, stereoscopic 3-D feature are being previewed for audiences at various unnamed film festivals, and that audience reaction has been ‘absolutely nuts.’
Directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone) Coraline centers on a young girl who moves with her parents into a new home and discovers a portal to a parallel reality. The voice cast includes Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Keith David and the famed British comedy duo of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, better known as French & Saunders.
Gaiman says he is very pleased with the footage he has seen, describing it as ‘the best stop-motion thing I’ve ever seen shot in 3-D.’ He goes on to tell SCI FI Wire that Selick is ‘doing something that is going to be revolutionary with Coraline.’
LAIKA is producing Coraline in association with Pandemonium Films. Pandemonium president/CEO Bill Mechanic and LAIKA’s Mary Sandell are handling producing duties for the feature, which is being crafted at LAIKA’s Portland animation studio. Focus Features has worldwide distribution rights, and will also release the film in theaters during the 2008 holiday season.
Also in the production pipeline at LAIKA is Jack & Ben’s Animated Adventure, a CG-animated story of survival, brotherly love and grand adventure set in the animal kingdom. The company also purchased the rights to U.K writer/illustrator Alan Snow’s best-selling children’s novel Here Be Monsters.
