Author: Robert Greenberger

Writer/director Henry Selick gave Toon Zone an interview in preparation for the release of his stop-motion animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

During the wide-ranging conversation, Selick nicely compared a book and a film, saying,

“books have a kind of language with internal dialogue and things like that; how do you bring that to a screen? Ultimately, it resulted in creating another character, this annoying neighbor kid Wybie. It’s a dangerous thing to do that to books, but I just could not find another way to flesh out Coraline. Just the cat in the real world? She didn’t know he could talk. So it took a long time, but I’d like to think Wybie went from a device to an important character. And he has a backstory that is connected to the house, so it pays off nicely.”

The book features a girl who discovers another reality just on the other side of a door in her home. The 2002 novella earned the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novella, the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novella, and the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers.

“The two most important things in adapting that I wanted to keep was holding onto the essence of Coraline and not making her overly heroic,” Selick explained.  “Not making her Kim Possible, giving her incredible fighting skills. It still had to feel that she’s skeptical. She doesn’t trust adults. Ultimately resourceful, brave, and tenacious. That was the most important thing to hang onto. The book was written over many years; it was actually inspired by Neil’s older daughter, when she was growing up, and then his younger daughter. So she actually seems to change ages in the book. I always liked that, and I think kids can regress, so she can say to her father, ‘I’m not five years old!’ and then act exactly like a five-year-old. Also, the relationship with her real mom. The real mom at the end of the book is not suddenly nice and caring and warm and touchy. She’s the same. There’s no real lessons learned; she doesn’t remember being rescued. It’s Coraline who sees everyone in a new way – she appreciates them.”

The film will open February 6, 2009.

A few days back we told you about Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt’s new novel, Dracula: The Un-dead. It had been purchased by Harper UK but now we learn from Publisher’s Weekly that Dutton publisher Brian Tart won the domestic rights.

The last time the Stoker family gave its seal of approval to a Dracula project was the 1931 Universal film starring Bela Lugosi.

The deal was concluded by Danny Baror of Baror International and Ken Atchity of Atchity Entertainment International who have sold international publishing rights to the book which will be released in October 2009.

Atchity will also act as producer, with Blue Tulip’s Jan de Bont (Speed), on the film adaptation which they hope to have before the cameras by June. A screenplay adaptation has already been completed by Holt and Alexander Galant.

Dutton’s parent company, Penguin USA, has also announced that a previously unpublished version of the 1987 novel, in its original unedited form, will be released in May. It was this version with Bram Stoker’s notes that helped inform his descendant as to how to best handle the characters who will reappear in the new book, set in 1912.
 

We’ve been writing a bit about the Swedish vampire sensation Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In).  We’ve already mentioned how it will finally get some screen time here in the states starting October 24 before coming to DVD in January.  We also told you how Cloverfield’s Matt Reeves will be directing the English language version for the newly revived Hammer Films.

What we didn’t tell you are that director Tomas Alfredson doesn’t think a remake is such a good idea. According to Slash Film, he told MovieZine, “Remakes should be made of movies that aren’t very good, that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong.

“I’m very proud of my movie and think it’s great, but the Americans might be of another opinion. The saddest thing for me would be to see that beautiful story made into something mainstream.”

Alfredson was drawn to the 2004 novel from writer John Ajvide Lindqvist about a 12-year-old boy and the 200-year-old vampire child, Eli. The dark coming of age tale was a big hit and ripe for screen adaptation.

The film was an international sensation, winning the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature, the Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus Award at Edinburgh Film Festival and first place in the Horror Features category at the 2008 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

 “I don’t like to whine, but of course – if you’d spent years on painting a picture, you’d hate to hear buzz about a copy even before your vernissage!”"