Award-winning filmmaker Henry Selick (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”) has signed on to direct the upcoming live-action feature “A Tale Dark & Grimm,” which is based on the popular children’s book by Adam Gidwitz.
The wickedly funny, truly frightening take on some of the Grimm Brothers’ more gruesome stories follows two unsuspecting children who run away from their own dark fairy tale in search of a better life, only to find themselves amidst eight other tales just as fearsome.
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Selick, who is considered a master of stop-motion animation, is best known for directing “A Nightmare Before Christmas,” “James and the Giant Peach” and “Coraline,” the latter of which he adapted from Neil Gaiman’s novella and received an Oscar nomination for.
Marissa McMahon of Kamala Films will finance development and produce alongside FilmNation Entertainment’s Aaron Ryder and Karen Lunder. John W. Mann and Jon Gunn, who also wrote “The Nutcracker,” DreamWorks Animation’s “B.O.O.” and a “Magic 8 Ball” movie, adapted the script, which Selick also had a hand in writing.
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“I remain completely enraptured by Adam Gidwitz’s marvelous book ‘A Tale Dark & Grimm.’ It’s a hilarious, deeply inventive tale about survival in the world of fairytales and what it takes to forgive one’s parents. So it’s a huge thrill to be joining the team of Kamala Films and FilmNation as the director of the film based on it. Between the great material and a team that really gets it, I hope to make something really special that lasts,” said Selick.
“We could not dream of a better filmmaker for ‘A Tale Dark & Grimm’ than Henry Selick. He is a unique and visionary storyteller whose work deftly walks the line between darkness and light in a way that is perfect for this project. We are thrilled to be working with him,” McMahon and Lunder said in a joint statement.
Selick is represented by Ellen Goldsmith Vein of the Gotham Group and attorney George Davis.