Jordan Peele is now an Oscar winner, but appears to be content with not forgetting his roots. He’ll once again be teaming with his former Comedy Central cohort Keegan-Michael Key on the stop-motion animated film Wendell and Wild, an original feature from Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline helmer Henry Selick. Initially announced a few years ago, it’s now moving forward thanks to Netflix, who will finance and distribute the film, according to Deadline.
Selick described the story as following “two scheming demon brothers who must face their arch-nemesis, the demon-dusting nun Sister Helly, and her two acolytes, the goth teens Kat and Raoul.” With Key & Peele providing the voices of the brothers, the script is coming from Selick, Peele, and Clay McLeod Chapman, and a book release is also being planned timed to the Netflix release.
In other animation news, Sylvain Chomet is currently working on his Fellini-inspired animation The Thousand Miles, but has already lined up another project. The Triplets of Belleville director has set his sights on Familiar Things, an adaptation of the Korean novel by Hwang Sok-yong. As reported by Korean Film, the director became interested in Korean culture particularly after seeing the films of Park Chan-wook, and this book would find him bringing to life a society that lives on the outskirts of a landfill. See a synopsis below.
Familiar Things is set during the 1980s and takes place in Flower Island, which is the landfill of an unnamed city, but is based on the landfill-turned-park in the Nanji area of Seoul. The story probes the negative side of consumption society through the view of Ddakburi, a 14-year-old boy and one of the rag-and-bone people living near the landfill.
The script is currently being adapted by Chomet, so considering how painstakingly detailed the animation process is, don’t expect this one for some years.