Henry Selick's Stop-Motion SHADOW KING Film Project is Dead

Earlier today we reported that Henry Selick's stop-motion animated film project Shadow King, which was dropped by Disney, might end up at Laika Studios. It was a sign of hope that the project would live on. Unfortunately, it looks like the Shadow King wasn't meant to be. According to our friends at Firstshowing, Laika passed on the project. 

Disney spent $50 million developing the project before they shut it down, and apparently Laika couldn't figure out the budgeting for it, which is sad. I would have loved to see this movie brought to life! The story revolved around two brothers and it was supposed to take Selick's special brand of surrealism into a new direction. One of the reasons Disney reportedly dropped the project is because they felt it was too dark. 

The source provided Firstshowing with a Memo that Selick sent internally to his staff at his San Francisco based stop-motion animation house Cinderbiter. "The memo confirms that Travis Knight, who runs Laika, unfortunately couldn't figure out budgeting to pull this project in and had to pass." Selick did say that "there still might be a chance to pick up the pieces at a future date." But as of right now, it's dead. 

I was really excited about this project, and it sucks that it doesn't look like anything is going to happen with it anytime soon. It's times like this where I wish I had an insane amount of money because I would invest in it myself. I really do hope someone comes along to breathe life back into the project.