Nightmare Before Christmas‘ Henry Selick has revived stop-motion project The Shadow King, bringing on “Beasts of the Southern Wild” producer Josh Penn and taking the project to the European Film Market in Berlin.
The Shadow King, directed by Selick from his own script, “Centers on a nine-year-old New York orphan who hides his strange hands with long fingers from a cruel world. When’s he’s taught how to make amazing hand shadows that come to life, his hands become weapons in a shadow war against a monster bent on killing his brother and ultimately destroying New York.”
Disney announced in August that it was pulling the plug on production on the film, which had scheduled for release October 4 of this year, meaning that Selick was able to shop the property to another studio. At that point, the pic had been in production since 2011 but Disney had not hired thesps to voice characters or revealed any artwork.
Selick helmed stop-motion hits Coraline, James and the Giant Peach, and Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, produced by Tim Burton.