It seems a bit strange that with his throngs of adoring fans and long list of writing credits, Neil Gaiman didn’t really break into the movie industry until this past year when, seemingly out of the blue, he popped up everywhere, due in part with his involvement in the massively underwhelming Beowulf and the fun Stardust. Personally, I really enjoyed MirrorMask, a 2005 film from a Gaiman script, which had animation unlike anything I’d seen before (or since) and though it does suffer from story flaws, it’s still well worth viewing.
Now Gaiman is a hot comodity in Hollywood and the next of his stories to be adapted is Coraline, based on his multiple award winning (a Nebula, Hugo and Bram Stoker Award) short children’s novel of the same title about a young bored girl who discovers that the bricked-up wall behind a door in her flat leads to another world.
The animated film is being directed by Henry Selick, at Laika Entertainment, a relatively new production company. Selick is best known for previously directing the seriously messed up Monkeybone, and working on both James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Coraline stars the voice talents of Dakota Fanning, Ian McShane and Teri Hatcher.
The film is supposed to open at some point later this year and though there hasn’t been an official trailer, a short clip from the movie has turned up online and rather unsurprisingly looking back at Selick’s work, and a clip from his previous short film Moongirl, this has a Burtonesque aesthetic.
Now I’ll have to dig up the book. With that many awards it’s bound to be a good read.
It’s a great little book reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. It and Neverwhere are probably Gaiman’s best solo book efforts.
The preview doesn’t show it, but Coraline exists in two seperate worlds. Our world, and the Other world. Our world is going to be 2-D animation, while the Other world is done with 3-D animation.
The only Gaiman work I’ve read so far is Stardust and I enjoyed that one.
I enjoyed Stardust immensely, although I found Beowulf a bit disappointing. I haven’t seen Mirrormask yet. Anyway, I am looking forward to Coraline, although it’s one of the few Gaiman works I haven’t read yet.
Here’s a clip from Mirrormask that sort of gives a feel of the film:
There are a couple of other clips and pictures at the film’s website which, surprisingly, is still live.
Mirromask was a fun experiment, but the story really suffered due to budgetary constraints. Gaiman likes to tell a bit about how many of his and McKean’s story conversations went.
Gaiman – Well I wanted to do a scene in a school…
McKean – Oh no we can’t do that.
Gaiman – Why not?
McKean – Well you have to hire extras which cost rather a bit of money, plus dozens of children and they can only work for so long, and then you have to scout a location and by the time you are done we’ve blown our whole budget.
Gaiman – Well that’s a pity.
McKean – Yeah, but if you want a city that folds in on itself I can do that for free.
I’ve picked up Mirrormask in the rental store and then set it back down again many times. Maybe it’s time I picked it up and kept it.
If I was in college still, I’d probably be able to have a lot more fun with it
but maybe it’s still worth a look.
And from Gaiman, the 3d preview:
I just watched that preview again and, for whatever reason, it reminded me of Tool’s “Sober” video: