Neil Gaiman’s children’s stories certainly strike a more frightening chord that most other Newbery Medal winning works, but that’s what makes them distinct and memorable. Gaiman’s Coraline honestly scared me as an adult reader but how LAIKA adapted it for the big screen made the story softer and loveable with its stop-motion visual techniques. Now Disney is looking to bring another one of Gaiman’s tales to life.

Deadline reports that Walt Disney Pictures has just sealed a six-figure deal for Gaiman’s best-seller and Newbery winner, The Graveyard Book. Sean Bailey, production chief at Disney, led the studio’s attempt at option the book and won a bidding war over several other studios. UK Effects company, Framestore, and Wayfare Entertainment Ventures’ Ben Browning had held the option previously but were not able to get the project going.

Walt Disney Pictures has tapped director Henry Selick (Coraline, Nightmare Before Christmas) to direct The Graveyard Book. The search for a screenwriter to adapt the book is on. Gil Netter and Wayfare Entertainment Ventures’ Browning are producing the project with Wayfare’s Michael Mayer executive producing.

Synopsis:

Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place-he’s the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians’ time as well as their timely ghostly teachings-like the ability to Fade. Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are things like ghouls that aren’t really one thing or the other.

No release date has been announced for The Graveyard Book.