Disney has proffered a deal that will reunite author Neil Gaiman and director Henry Selick (Coraline) to bring The Graveyard Book to life. The best-selling children's title drew attention from every major studio but Disney ultimately won out on the adaptation rights with a high six-figure bid. The Newbury Award-winning The Graveyard Book is a one-off take on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book which replaces the boy raised by wolves with a young orphan raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Those familiar with Gaiman's other works (The Sandman comics, Stardust, American Gods) and, equally, those who were fans of Coraline will be happy to hear that The Graveyard Book is a high priority for Disney. Hit the jump for more.
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Disney's acquisition of The Graveyard Book as well as Selick's attachment to direct. Selick, whose works also include The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, is currently manning a project for Pixar, but will pick The Graveyard Book up next. Check out a synopsis of Gaiman's novel below:
It takes a graveyard to raise a child. Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family.