Henry Selick's The Shadow King

[Disneyphile]

After its recent announcement* that Tangled would be its last Princess movie (maybe people liked them too much), it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that Disney has decided to try a different tack to win over new generations of kids – they’re going to terrify them to death instead.

Henry Selick, director of Coraline, James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas, has recently opened a new studio in San Francisco – Shademaker Productions, formerly Cinderbiter Productions – which will be working on animations, including a film for Disney, called Shademaker. Just the name Cinderbiters conjures up some very unpleasant images of cannibalistic ugly stepsisters and fairy godmothers.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/02/24/ ... hademaker/

[Duckburger]

This is going to be awesome.

[Super Aurora]

Henry Selicks himself look like a great candidate to scare little kids.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Sounds promising. And even if I like stop motion, I would also love to see a movie based on the technique they used on the rancor in Star Wars. Instead of stop motion, they moved a puppet in real time, but really slowly, and then showed it in a higher speed. Not too may movies can have been made that way.

For those interested in stop motion:

http://www.awn.com/articles/article/adv ... page/1%2C1

[REINIER]

Henry Selicks himself look like a great candidate to scare little kids.

I tend to agree on that

[Victurtle]

Oh I thought you meant Tom Selick

[Disneyphile]

I guess I could post another article, "Disney re-teams with Tom Selleck on 'Three Men and a Bride.'"

[Victurtle]

^ I love you

[milojthatch]

Sounds promising. And even if I like stop motion, I would also love to see a movie based on the technique they used on the rancor in Star Wars. Instead of stop motion, they moved a puppet in real time, but really slowly, and then showed it in a higher speed. Not too may movies can have been made that way.

For those interested in stop motion:

http://www.awn.com/articles/article/adv ... page/1%2C1

Thanks for the post, I'm trying to explore stop motion animation right now.


As for the article, not surprised. I'm not a fan of this guy, but he has done well for the Mouse House already.

[Sotiris]

The film just got a release date; Shademaker is going to be released on October 04, 2013.

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-dis ... lms-17294/

[Disneyphile]

Henry Selick, a giant in the pocket-sized world of stop-motion animation, is almost finished with production on his next film, an as-yet-untitled project for Walt Disney Co.

The director of "Coraline" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas" has been supervising a crew of about 150 craftspersons and animators from his new studio, Cinderbiter, based in an old chocolate factory in San Francisco's Mission District. The film will be Selick's first since signing an exclusive deal with Disney/Pixar in 2010.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/ ... isney.html

[Sotiris]

^Wow, that report from LA Times is full of inaccuracies. The project is not untitled; it's called Shademaker and the studio is no longer called Cinderbiter but Shademaker Productions.

[Sotiris]

This is interesting:

Henry Selick said he consulted with the animation studio's creative leaders several times while developing his script. Taking story notes from Pixar's candid "brain trust" was a new and sometimes arresting experience for Selick, who historically has been more of a lone tinkerer as a director.

"The first time, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know if I can handle this, Why did John [Lasseter] agree to help me make my films?' " he said. "But then I found out it’s that way with everybody, even their best filmmakers. When you see what they produce, it’s like, 'OK, don’t take any of it personally.' ''

The gist of the notes, Selick said, was, "Don’t get caught up in eye candy. They said, 'Let’s try to make your story as clear as possible and give it as much heart as it deserves.' "

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/ ... isney.html

[Lnds500]

eehmmm... guys... WTF??? is this Shademaker??

Disney and Henry Selick will bring Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book to the big screen

We loved Henry Selick's stop-motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman's creepy Coraline, and now the Nightmare Before Christmas director is taking on a second Gaiman tale, with a Disney-backed version of The Graveyard Book.
Yesterday, Disney revealed that it had snapped up rights to The Graveyard Book, Gaiman's play on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Where Kipling's hero Mowgli was raised by wolves in the jungle, Gaiman's, Nobody "Bod" Owens is raised by ghosts (among other things) in a graveyard, where he encounters all manner of strange and scary creatures. Today, we learn that Disney has attached Selick — who has been doing some mysterious work with Pixar — to direct. Hopefully, he'll bring the same chid-like terrors and delights he brought to Coraline. At the very least, we'll likely get some gorgeous stop-motion in the bargain.

http://io9.com/5905974/disney-and-henry ... big-screen


EDIT: apparently, the Graveyard Book will come after Shademaker

UPDATE: This Disney deal for Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book keeps getting more interesting. I’ve learned that Henry Selick, who helmed Gaiman’s Coraline, is now attached to direct The Graveyard Book at Disney. Selick, best known for Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, is already working for Disney-based Pixar on a top secret film. But he’ll do this one after. Selick is repped by The Gotham Group. They are looking for a screenwriter now.

[Sotiris]

Just to clarify a few things: Shademaker is not a Pixar co-production or even a collaboration. Shademaker is produced by Shademaker Productions, Inc., an independent studio founded by Henry Selick. They have a distribution deal with Disney.

Pixar's "Brain Trust" simply gave some notes to Selick and his team just like they did for The Muppets; that doesn't make it a Pixar co-production.

[Lnds500]

Just to clarify a few things: Shademaker is not a Pixar co-production or even a collaboration. Shademaker is produced by Shademeker Productions, Inc., an independent studio founded by Henry Selick. They have a distribution deal with Disney.

Pixar's "Brain Trust" simply gave some notes to Selick and his team just like they did for The Muppets; that doesn't make it a Pixar co-production.

Yeah, you're right, I've edited my OP

[estefan]

Henry Selick's new movie has been shut down.

That's a shame.

[Mickeyfan1990]

Man, Tim Burton should stand behind Selick and convince Disney to continue the project.

[Kyle]

With production already well underway, and the fact that Disney is allowhing him to shop it to other companies Im sure it'll get released at some point, just not by Disney. It's a shame but it'll live. (Right?)

[Sotiris]

Variety reports some additional information on the subject.

Disney has decided not to move forward with Henry Selick's untitled stop-motion pic, ending production on the film that was scheduled for release Oct. 4, 2013.

The Mouse House notified around 150 staffers working at Shademaker Prods. in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon of the decision. Selick can now shop the property to another studio.

Project marks the first pic Alan Horn has pulled the plug on since replacing Rich Ross as chairman of the Walt Disney Studios in June. The move isn't expected to affect another Selick project, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book," also set up at Disney.

Sources close to the production said from a creative and scheduling standpoint, the pic wasn't where it needed to be to meet its planned release date and the studio decided not to continue production as a result.

While the pic had been in production since last summer, Disney had yet to hire thesps to voice characters. Studio also had yet to reveal any artwork from the project during its production or as promotional materials, making it easier for another distributor to pick up the film.

Source: http://www.variety.com/article/VR111805 ... ?cmpid=RSS

The TAG blog also adds:

This morning we got a cryptic phone call about this. Disney contacted the IA regarding the impending shutdown. We, naturally enough, kept it under our hats.

I journeyed up to the shoot several weeks ago, and things appeared to be going well.

The project was happening in the industrial/warehouse section of San Francisco, and the crew was "up" and engaged. I have no idea why Henry's project was shut down so deep into production, but some person in a higher level of authority must have seen dailies and said: "Ahhh. No."

Whatever the actual reason, we're saddened to see so many animation professionals lose their jobs off a feature that appeared to be in full flight. Here's hoping that Mr. Selick sets the feature up someplace else and folks can continue working.

Source: http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... biter.html