The Carver's House

Someone, then a small-time film director, once told me that I ought to someday try out helming a movie. He said that my comics work could pass for a good storyboard, that I had a knack for choosing the right camera angles among other things, and all I needed to learn were the little technicalities behind the medium. He admitted that he didn't go to film school, but he found himself directing a handful of films later in his career. I then remembered one of my comics heroes, Katsuhiro Otomo , who had let go of comics to pursue animation with such projects as Steamboy and Memories . And for a time I wondered if I could graduate from static to moving images with some ease. Right now, I don't think so. I don't think I ever will. Not because of the technical aspects, but more of the level of collaboration it entails. I work better alone or in small groups. Put me in a position of directing a huge number of people, and I might just throw the towel in. Another director, this time ...

Have you seen this? I hope they include the theme song... even just in the music bed.

I haven't read the Neil Gaiman novella, but I did read the somehow unsatisfying graphic novel adaptation by P. Craig Russell . The film adaptation, directed by Nightmare Before Christmas ' Henry Selick, will be a stop-motion / 3D combo, featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher. The visual atmosphere of the film obviously targets a younger set, with a cartoony design looking nothing like Russell's adaptation. A major change from book to film is the inclusion of a sidekick character, a decision that Selick explains in the following video. Coraline is set for release in 2009.

Now this is interesting.