Like many of its supernatural characters, Disney’s adaptation of The Graveyard Book is back from the dead. According to Deadline, the studio is moving forward with new plans to turn Neil Gaiman’s 2008 young adult novel into a film. Additionally, Marc Forster has signed on as the movie’s director.
Gaiman’s novel follows Nobody “Bod” Owens, a young orphan raised by the ghostly spirits who inhabit a graveyard located near the site of his parents’ murder. As he grows up, Bod is given the Freedom of the Graveyard, which allows him to vanish from sight and walk through solid objects. Gaiman came up with the original idea for the story in the mid-‘80s as a gothic spin on The Jungle Book. However, he didn’t actually write the novel for another two decades. The book eventually won the American Newbery Medal and the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
A film adaptation of The Graveyard Book has been in the works since 2009, when Miramax held the rights to the novel. The studio originally hired Neil Jordan (Interview with the Vampire) to write and direct the movie. By 2012, the rights had changed hands to Disney, with Henry Selick, who previously adapted Gaiman’s Coraline. Selick wanted to direct the film in a similar stop-motion animated style.
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Pixar later began developing the movie as its first adapted work. And in 2013, Ron Howard signed on to direct a live-action adaptation. But until today, there hadn’t been any new developments on the project since then. Forster and Renée Wolfe are also producing the film through their 2Dux2 alongside Gil Netter and Ben Browning.
Forster is best known for directing Monster’s Ball, Stranger Than Fiction, Quantum of Solace, and World War Z. His next film, White Bird: A Wonder Story, opens in October. Additionally, The Graveyard Book will reunite Forster with Finding Neverland screenwriter David Magee, who will also pen the script. The Wrap likewise predicts that the movie will blend live-action and animated elements similar to Forster’s last film, 2018’s Christopher Robin.
Do you think Forster is a good choice to direct The Graveyard Book? Who would you cast to play Bod Owens? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: The Graveyard Book
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