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.

We were among the many sites to report that low ratings may kill Sarah Connor long before a T-1000 gets to complete the mission. To be fair, we should also be reporting that Fox is scoffing at the reports.

"The rumors are all speculative and never fact checked with the network or studio," a rep told i09.

The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has received okay reviews but the ratings are down to under 6 million viewers which usually bring about a pink slip.  The production continues to chug along, fulfilling their order for 13 episodes.

The competition, Mondays at 8 p.m. is quite fierce as they oppose popular sitcoms The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother on CBS, Chuck on NBC, Dancing with the Stars on ABC and Monday Night Football on ESPN.

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.
 

Nine years ago, game developer Jeff Kinney started to write the diary of a boy named Gregg Heffley.  A few years after that, he began to publish the story on the website FunBrain.com.    Charles Kochman  picked it up for the Harry N. Abrams imprint, Amulet Books, and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid phenomenon was on.

Since then, Kinney published a sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules and, this month, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do it Yourself Book.   A third story, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Last Straw is due in January.

The series has a passionate following.  Like Harry Potter, the books attract kids (who may be too young for Rowling’s longer novels) who can’t wait to read them.  Bookstores plan parties around new volumes.

Jeff was in Baltimore for the recent Comic-Con, where Abrams sold advance copies of the new Do It Yourself book. We spoke with him at the Harvey awards, where he was nominated in eight categories, including Best New Talent, Best New Series, Best Writer, and Special Award for Humor.  He lost in every category, but he had the longest lines at the show, as kids waited an hour and more for his autograph.

ComicMix:  I read your books this week. Sorry I’m a little late, but my kid is grown.  They’re really fun.  I met your mom today.  I saw the line for your signing, which was thrilling. 

Jeff Kinney:  Thank you very much.  I had no idea if it was long or short.  I just sat there and signed. 

CMx:  Was this your first comic convention?  I know you’ve done book conventions. 

JK:  I’ve done a few others.  Actually, I got my book picked up at New York Comic-Con two years ago.  And I just wandered around with a manuscript and lucked into meeting Charlie Kochman, who picked it up on first sight.  He took a look at it for maybe 30 seconds and said, “This is what we want.  This is why we came here.”
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The Ignatz Awards were presented last night at the Small Press Expo. Named for George Herriman’s classic comic strip character from Krazy Kat, the festival prize recognizes outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The winners:

Outstanding Artist
Laura Park, Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream (self-published)

Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Papercutter #7, edited by Greg Means (Tugboat Press)

Outstanding Graphic Novel
Skim, Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books)

Outstanding Story
The Thing About Madeleine, Lilli Carre (self-published)

Promising New Talent
Sarah Glidden, How To Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less (self-published)

Outstanding Series
Snake Oil, Chuck Forsman (self-published)

Outstanding Comic
Snake Oil #1, Chuck Forsman (self-published)

Outstanding Mini-Comic
Bluefuzz, Jesse Reklaw

Outstanding Online Comic
Achewood, Chris Onstad

Filmgoers like dogs it seems as Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua captured the box office crown this weekend.  According to estimates from Box Office Mojo, the film took in an impressive $29,000,000.

Other first-timers include Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist with Kat Dennings and Michael Cera, bowing in the number three slot with $12,000,000. The mean spirited political satire, American Carol, took in just $3,810,000, good for ninth place. Right behind it was Lionsgate’s Religulous which earned $3,500,000. The more limited release of Greg Kinner’s Flash of Genius grabbed just $2,328,000 but had the more impressive per screen average of $2120.

Eagle Eye, despite poor reviews, had a below average sophomore week dip of just 39.3%, earning $17, 700,000 pushing its total to $54,605,000. Warner’s Nights in Rodanthe had a sharper slip of 45.2%, bringing in just $7,355,000.

Appaloosa, going into wide release, earned $5,015,000, totaling $5,570,000.  The buddy western, based on Robert B. Parker’s novel, got reasonable reviews and adapting the sequel is already on the drawing board.

The variety of movies is wider than it has been in months and people seemed to spread across the genres. Comedy seems to be ruling over drama and romance as people seek a distraction from the tumultuous economy and presidential campaign.

Having said that, not every comedy has clicked with audiences.  The Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading continues to chug along while Paramount’s Ghost Town hasn’t a ghost of a chance of earning back its $20 million budget through domestic release.  After three weeks, it has earned a paltry.

Another disappointment has to be The Women, the tepid remake of the classic female ensemble film.  It sank to 22nd place, behind The Dark Knight (yes, still in theatres and still raking in the bucks — $525,833,000 and counting), bringing in only $795,000 on over 1000 screens.

In the coming weeks, a flurry of horror films will be opening to capitalize on Halloween while other films, such as The Duchess, go wide.  Oscar contenders will start to turn up as well, beginning with Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, providing additional depth and distraction.
 

Even scientists like to have fun every now and then.  England’s New Scientist magazine will be exploring the SF world in their November issue and along the way want to get reader input on the best and worst to date.

“We plan to explore this question in a special edition of New Scientist out on 15 November – as well as reviewing the best new science fiction books and talking to some of the world’s leading writers,” they write at the magazine’s website.

To engage readers prior to the issue’s release, they ask for people to vote on their favorite science fiction books and films.  In order to kick start the debate, they polled themselves and named Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the best book. “Hitchhiker’s Guide as the out-and-out best sci-fi book by several dead whales and one bowl of petunias. Anyone who disagrees with me is clearly a crass Golgafrinchan who should be forced to listen to Vogon poetry for as long as it takes," wrote one of their editors.

We applaud their choice of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics as the worst science fiction novel.

Blade Runner was the clear favorite film among the magazine staff, noting "It’s a great story, emotionally involving and well acted – and still has a mystery. Was Harrison Ford’s cop really a cyborg?"

Steve McQueen’s The Blob took the worst film title. "I saw The Blob when I was about seven years old and haven’t eaten jelly since," said one of the staff.
 

The recent Ultimate Origins mini-series has been delving into the past of the Ultimate Marvel Universe. Now at last, we’ve learned how many of the heroes and super-humans of this reality are related and interconnected. We’ve learned the startling secrets of the creation of the mutant gene and Mutant Zero, we’ve seen the initial transformation of the Hulk and how he was responsible for the deaths of Peter Parker’s parents (although writer Brian Michael Bendis recently denied this at Batlimore Comic-Con, the recent March on Ultimatum one-shot confirms it). We’ve seen the secrets of Nick Fury and learned that he’s been around since World War II.

But most startling about the Ultimate Origins mini is the sub-plot that takes place in the present-day. A Watcher has appeared, a strange device with a single eye that claims to be part of a hive-culture. The first Watcher appeared on Earth when Captain America, the first true post-human of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, recieved his enhanced abilities. Now hundreds of Watchers are appearing all over Earth. Which means that something catastrophic is coming.

They didn’t show up during the coming of Gah Lak Tus. What could be coming now that is worse?

Possibly the end of human civilization. Magneto is back. He’s angry. He has a plan. And he may have already defeated Thor.

The story is Ultimatum, a new mini-series written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by David Finch. The tagline is simple. "For what they’ve done, they will have to pay the ultimate price." Rumors abound how much this will change the Ultimate Universe and alredady some are whispering that characters will die and titles will be cancelled. Be on the look out.

But Ultimatum isn’t the only thing Marvel is throwing at us. It has recently been revealed through a leaked cover image that the New Avengers line-up, following Secret Invasion, is likely to include Wolverine, Spider-Man, Ronin, Luke Cage and the new Captain America (Bucky Barnes). Wonder who’s gonna be on Dark Avengers if they didn’t pick up Wolverine.

And in his most recent Cup o’ Joe on Myspace, Joe Quesada talks about Deadpool, Madelyne Pryor, Secret Invasion and how the Malibu characters are not coming back anytime soon.