Laika Passes On Henry Selick's 'Shadow King,' Project Gets Shelved

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by Kevin Jagernauth
September 26, 2012 6:29 PM
4 Comments

Such is the world we live in, where Len Wiseman gets hired to direct a reboot of "The Mummy," yet Henry Selick can't get a movie made at a studio. And while there was a brief ray of light for Selick's "Shadow King" (aka "Shademaker" ) after Disney scrapped it last month, with Laika taking a look at the movie, it now seems that the project is dead.

FirstShowing reports that Laika has passed on the movie as a budget couldn't be nailed down for the project, which has already cost Disney $50 million. Selick sent a memo to staff at his Cinderbiter Studios earlier this week, announcing that the movie would not be moving forward. Not many details were known about the film, except that it involved two brothers, and though it had a tenative Halloween 2013 release date in mind, it proved to be too dark for Disney too handle. There is a chance the movie could be picked back up down the line, but for all intents and purposes, "Shadow King" is dead.

Where Selick goes from here remains to be seen. He's attached to direct an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book," also at Disney, but considering this recent turn of events and the studio's skittishness with "dark" material, we'll be curious to see if that happens. But for now Selick is a bit adrift, having left Laika following "Coraline," courted by Disney, who have ulimately left him hanging. The director occupies a unique niche in the animation world, one that is distinctly his own, but the game has changed, and distinct directorial voices need to find benefactors to bring their work to the bring screen (*cough*Megan Ellison*cough*). But hopefully, it isn't too long before Selick is working again on another creative concoction.

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More: Laika Animated Studios, Henry Selick

4 Comments

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MJ | September 27, 2012 12:04 PMReply

This sucks. I'm not surprised Laika passed after he left them for Disney, but this sucks so much. I love stop motion & Selick is one of its biggest forces. As for The Graveyard Book, if his relationship with Disney is still OK in spite of this I could see that still happening, because Disney's ok with Frankenweenie & The Graveyard Book is still a children's story it isn't much darker.
Tom | September 26, 2012 8:23 PMReply

Well shit.
Ree | September 26, 2012 7:05 PMReply

:-(
What you said about hack Wiseman and the f**king pointless Mummy reboot really does make this whole thing seem like a nasty cosmic joke.
rotch | September 26, 2012 6:35 PMReply

giant bummer