Coraline Director Working on Another Neil Gaiman Adaptation, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Coraline director Henry Selick is working on a new movie based on a Neil Gaiman title, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Per Variety, Selick and Gaiman are collaborating on an adaptation of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. The duo previously worked together on 2009’s Coraline.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane will be “almost a sequel” to Henry Selick’s Coraline

Selick described the movie as “almost a sequel” to Coraline. He added, “Instead of a child going to this other world with a monstrous mother, it’s a monstrous mother who comes into our world to wreak havoc on a kid’s life.”

Published in 2013, Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane is described as a “brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale.”

The novel’s description further reads, “This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real.”

Selick is currently shopping the project around to prospective buyers. According to Variety, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio studio ShadowMachine is interested in the project, while Selick also praised Laika for housing “the best talent and the best resources.”

Additionally, Selcik is hoping to revive The Shadow King, a project that he was initially working on for Walt Disney Pictures in the early 2010s but was canceled in 2012. Selick announced that he’d reacquired the rights for The Shadow King from Disney in 2022.

Variety reports that Selick is planning to “initially release his original vision” of The Shadow King as a graphic novel in hopes of spurring interest in the project. Should it move forward, Selick may hand the film off to another director.

Along with Coraline, Selick is known for directing 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1996’s James and the Giant Peach, 2001’s Monkeybone, and, most recently, 2022’s Wendell & Wild.