A while back, I wrote a post about six novels that I wanted to see adapted. One of my choices was Neil Gaiman’s 2008 fantasy children’s novel The Graveyard Book, in which I said it was “only a matter of time before somebody gets this thing made for the big screen” and when it did it would be “huge.” Now, as Disney has finally acquired the rights to adapt what is an absolute classic in children’s fiction, I am convinced that it will be even bigger than I initially imagined.
Inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Gaiman’s story follows a young boy named Nobody who is taken in and raised by the inhabitants of an old graveyard after the brutal murder of his family. Ghosts from all centuries, vampires, werewolves, and a variety of ghouls make up the rich cast of characters where it is the supernatural who fear the humans – not the other way around. It’s thrilling and scary and genuinely touching, hitting on some very mature themes and beautifully exploring the trials and tribulations that come with growing up.
The adaptation will be directed by Henry Selick, who is primarily a stop motion director having directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and a prior adaptation of Gaiman’s work with Coraline – so it’s pretty safe to assume that this will also follow that trend. All I can say is that I am really looking forward to this one.
Have you read The Graveyard Book? What are your thoughts on an adaptation? Would it translate better as live-action rather than stop motion? Chime in below!
Previously Neil Jordan was set to direct it as a live action, which I just didn’t see working. I always thought it would work great as stop-motion, but if not that then an CGI or animated movie.
I’m glad that Henry Selick is behind it as I think he did an incredible job on Coraline and really gets Neil Gaiman’s sensibility. No matter what if it’s stop-motion or live action, I think it’s in good hands with Selick.
Of course, my expectations are now through the roof
Hm. Sounds great, but for my tastes I would like to see someone other than Sellick. Fabb is right about getting Gaiman’s sensibilities and all his previous stuff has been great. But at some point its going to all start to look the same.
A Neil Jordan (a weird, sort of in-the-middle type of director whom I’ve really come to appreciate) version might have been interesting. Even an animated version by him could’ve been cool…
maybe.
I’m always down for some kid friendly “horror” stop-motion/animated. Fall is looking pretty damn good with Paranorman and Frankenweenie coming out.
Now, if only we can get someone to remake The Halloween Tree whether it be live action or animated.
Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline are very different movies and I imagine if Graveyard Book was to become stop-animation, that it would once again have a very different look.
I think live action would be incredibly difficult because of the many different ages the main character is throughout the story. I think getting that many child actors to play the same character would be incredibly difficult and the chances of failure pretty big.
I just looked up Henry Selick to see what info there is on the Pixar movie he’s been working on a for the last 2 years. It comes out October 4, 2013 and it’s title and what it is about still remains a mystery.
However, apparently part of the agreement with Pixar and Disney was the movies would be exclusively stop-motion. I’m curious if it will be under the Disney or Pixar brand name, despite it clearly being a Pixar movie working with John Lasseter and Brad Bird from Pixar.
Anyways, it looks like unless there was a change with the deal that the Graveyard Book movie with be stop-motion.