The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Today’s subject is Henry Selick, the animator, director, producer, screenwriter who started his movie career teaming with Tim Burton on the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. He has been a preeminent figure in his field since then, but he has only made five films. That’s because his gift comes in stop-motion animation, the painstaking process in which the subjects are moved, a frame or two at a time.
Selick followed with the Roald Dahl adaptation James and the Giant Peach, and then Monkeybone, Coraline and Wendell & Wild. The latter film was made in partnership with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, based on a story by Selick. The film was released by Netflix in October. Hailing from New Jersey, Selick was headed for a career in science, until he veered to CalArts to study animation, drawing Oscar noms for his two student films Phases and Tube Tales. Here, he explains his pivot,
