It seemed like Henry Selick's latest stop-motion project, "The Shadow King," might never see the light of day. But with the help of the team behind "Beasts of the Southern Wild," it looks like "The Shadow King" may live again, according to a piece in Variety.
Selick will be taking "The Shadow King" to the European Film Market of Berlin with "Beasts" producer Joshua Penn in the hopes of attracting buyers at the event.
The story involves a nine-year-old orphan living in New York who hides his extra-long fingers from the world, who finds his purpose in life after learning how to make elaborate shadow puppets. But when a monster threatens his little brother and the city of New York, our hero must use his shadow puppetry skills as weapons in a war.
Originally set up at Disney, the feature was set for an October 2013 release before having the plug pulled back in August before hiring any voice talent for the film (and after $50 million had been spent in production since its start in 2011, according to this First Showing article from last year). The project seemed all-but-dead, with even "Coraline" studio Laika passing on the project after having trouble figuring out how to make the budget work.
We brought you the news last year that the 150 animators working on the project were let go, so Selick would need to begin hiring again to get "The Shadow King" up and running again. However, depending on how far along the project was during its original production cycle, it wouldn't be a huge stretch to expect to see "The Shadow King" sometime next year.
[Source: Variety]