Henry Selick Still Hoping To Direct Stop-Motion Adaptation of Neil Gaman's THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE

Stop-Motion animation film director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, Wendell & Wild,) is still keen on developing a scrapped film project titled The Ocean at the End of the Lane. This is a project that he was working on once upon a time, and it was an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman fantasy story that was released in 2013.

Selick had written fifty pages of a script for the film, the story of which centered on “an unnamed man who returns to his childhood home for a funeral when he's flooded by memories of his childhood entanglement in a magical conflict.”

When asked about it in an interview with EW, Selick said: "I would consider it. It's [Gaiman's] best book. It was set up as live-action, and then Neil gave me a chance with it, which would be amazing as a stop-motion film. But it also would have to be PG-13, which honestly is, I think, a draw for 10-year-olds. They don't wanna see G or PG."

When discussing the rating, he explained: "I think it's a good thing for the most part. From us, that's how it has to be done. I'm in touch with Neil, and he's become super successful with some of his series. The more involved Neil is with adaptations, the better those projects are, I think, starting primarily with Good Omens."

Selick goes on to say that The Ocean at the End of the Lane getting made all depends on the success of Wendell & Wild. "It was something I took there to LAIKA, and then Neil took the project back for a while. Then I saw him again. I said, 'Look, why don't you give me another shot?' We just have to see how Wendell & Wild goes. We've got some really good reviews, and then we just have to see if people watch it to keep making another one."

I hope that Selick actually gets to make this movie! I have no doubt that he would turn the story into a great film!