Coraline director Henry Selick returns to Disney for next film

For animation fans this is particular exciting news (and to be honest, it should be exciting news for fans of good movies in general). Henry Selick, who began his career as an animator with Disney in the 1970s, is returning to the studio with an exclusive long-term deal to make stop-motion features for Disney/Pixar. Selick, who abruptly left Laika, producers of CORALINE, last October was brought back into the Disney fold by close friend (and Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios).

While the deal doesn’t expressly say this, I’m guessing Selick may soon be making a Pixar film. The announcement comes with word that Selick has been spending quite a bit of time at Pixar’s Emeryville headquarters lately and that his new offices will not be in Los Angeles but in the Bay Area, nearby to the Pixar campus. It’s also mention that Selick will tap into the Pixar “brain trust” (Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, Lee Unkrich, etc.) for his films.

No project has been announced but Selick hopes to direct both original content and film’s based on previously written literature. While Selick made his directorial debut with Disney in 1993 with THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, he was unceremoniously let go by the studio after JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH failed to attract an audience (somewhat ironically, Disney felt GIANT PEACH failed because audiences had already seen the future of animation with Pixar’s TOY STORY).