Henry Selick on Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton
Focus Features' Coraline Stars Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher
Nov 10, 2009
In the previous installment of this interview, director Henry Selick talked about working with Neil Gaiman on Coraline and some of the ways he differentiated the real world from the Other world. In this interview, he tells Suite 101 the similarities and differences between Gaiman and Tim Burton's creative styles.
S101: You worked with Tim Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas, and now Neil Gaiman on Coraline. What are the big similarities and differences in working with Neil versus Tim?
Selick: “They’re very similar in that, in both cases, they left me alone. In Nightmare, Tim was the father of the film but I’m the mother. Tim came up with this brilliant idea – the collision of the holidays – and these great characters, Jack Skellington and Sally, and he came up with the look of the film. But when he hired me, he gave me enormous freedom.
“I and my crew made Nightmare in San Francisco while he made 2 live-action films down in LA. I’d send him stuff, there was one re-shoot, and then Tim brought in his own editor Chris Lebenzon to trim a couple of minutes.
“Same with Neil and Coraline: once he was convinced I was the right guy, and we’d had some discussions, he pushed me to find my own reasons. That’s how they were similar: once there was trust and belief, there was plenty of room to fail! (laughs)
“How are they different? In some ways, Tim is anti-story, he believes the emotional story of a film is its most important element. Sometimes he’ll break a story that’s working too well in order to emphasize emotional content. Tim’s a very smart guy, but he’s anti-intellectual in some ways. He’s much more picture-oriented: he’s a great storyteller but he doesn’t like to write.
“Neil is a word and idea guy. He’s much more cerebral and he crafts his stories. He takes existing things and re-imagines them as something new. From the exterior, they look like they’re related but their approach to their art is very, very different.”
S101: Are you working with Neil again?
Selick: “There are two possibilities; I’d love to work with Neil again. With Coraline, I felt I’d found the perfect vehicle for myself, and the perfect collaborator. We’ve been discussing things for quite a while. I regret that The Graveyard Book went to a brilliant director Neil Jordan, but as a live-action film. Of course I see everything as stop-motion (laughs), but that story in particular I saw in stop-motion.
“There’s one big project, and one smaller but beautiful idea. I have an original idea, based on an 84-page treatment I wrote a while ago. But I will definitely work with Neil again, but it may be the next project.”
S101: I heard you left Laika. What happened there?
Selick: “It was a great experience working with Laika. Nobody else was going to back Coraline so I had to find a studio that would back this scary kids film, and Laika was the one. I got to make a short film there, I helped build the studio, but that was my time there. They’ve got some other directors there, and Travis Knight – one of the world’s greatest animators – is in the top position there, and he did fabulous work on Coraline. But it came to the end of this cycle: I could be back there in a few years, I’d love to work with Travis again, but I have other opportunities.
“Frankly, I miss California: Portland’s lovely with the coffee and the fantastic beer, but I’ve spent most of my life in the Bay area. That’s where I made Nightmare and James and the Giant Peach, the animation for Monkeybone, so we’re going back there for a while.”
S101: One last question: you’re giving a 20-second elevator pitch for Coraline to someone who’s never read the book, never heard of it. What do you say?
Selick: “Coraline is the story of an only child whose parents are overworked. She’s bored, she’s ignored, and she discovers a better version of her own life. Much like Alice in Wonderland, she goes through a small door into this other world, where her Other Mother and Other Father, and other versions of her neighbors reside. It seems like the best place in the world, but it turns out to be incredibly dangerous. Ultimately, she no longer has to save herself, she has to save her real parents and these 3 mysterious ghost children.”
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