Although Laika, the studio behind Coraline, lost Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick to Disney/Pixar, they haven’t given up, and now Variety reports they have grand plans to adapt the fantasy book Wildwood for the big screen.
Wildwood, by folk rocker Colin Meloy, is the first in a proposed trilogy centring around Prue McKneel, a young lady who must confront a world filled with magic and danger after her younger brother is kidnapped, forcing her to enter the Impassable Wilderness. Umm, isn’t that Labyrinth?
Well, no, apparently it’s Lord Of The Rings, as Laika CEO Travis Knight told Variety, “It’s a story in the grand tradition of Tolkien, as big as ‘The Lord of the Rings’ with a wonderful contemporary quality as well. Nothing of its kind has been attempted in our medium. You have these epic scenes alongside very nuanced character moments, which are the two hardest things to do in stop-motion. It’s exciting to imagine how this might all come together.”
It’s definitely ambitious, and as stop-motion takes ages anyway, don’t expect this movie in the near future.