Neil Gaiman's 'Coraline' coming to life

Here are some images from the Portland, Ore., set of "Coraline," the much-anticipated animated film version of Neil Gaiman's brilliant novella (which was also notably adapted as a graphic novel drawn by P. Craig Russell).

The photo above shows scenic painter Aaron Jarrett at work on the set of the film now being directed and produced by the ingenious Henry Selick, who along with Tim Burton brought the world the spindly magic of "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

These photographs were taken by David Strick, who has one of the greatest gigs ever: He's the set photographer who gets fantastic access and captures truly singular Tinseltown moments. You can see the building collection of his very special work over at Hollywood Backlot. It's a pretty astounding and deep archive, and every time I click through I find something new and compelling.

Coraline is due in theaters in February and features the voices of Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane and John Hodgman. There's a simmering excitment for this film. Why?

Well, beyond the source-material pedigree, the cast and the presence of Selick, the $75-million "Coraline" is the first stop-action animated film to be shot stereoscopically with dual digital cameras for cutting-edge 3-D exhibition. There's an early trailer for this intriguing film below.

-- Geoff Boucher

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All photographs by David Strick from his "Hollywood Backlot" collection.

Comments

[John]

Let's just hope the studio behind this one will know what to do with it. Disney completely botched the previous stop-motion movies, and it would SEEM audiences don't know what to do with them ... except "Robot Chicken" is a huge hit on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, which indicates there's an audience. It's up to the studio's marketing and public relations departments not to screw it up ... !