Tag: Henry Selick

Alicia Lozano makes her return to the Hero Complex with coverage of a packed-house event at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Neil Gaiman had a rough year. His father died while the 49-year-old author was working on a screenplay of his 2005 novel “Anansi Boys” and financing crumpled for a film adaptation of “The Graveyard Book.” But standing before a rapt audience (and a wildly diverse one, considering the children carrying copies of “Coraline,” the parents toting “American Gods” and goth kids wielding “Sandman” issues) at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Thursday night, Gaiman was nothing but sprightly storytelling and good omens. “I always wanted to be the kind of writer who can tell whatever stories he wanted,” said Gaiman, dressed in his ubiquitous uniform of black on black with appropriately shaggy hair and alabaster skin. “It never occurred to me not to be.” ...

Neil Gaiman knows that the best stories must be both bitter and sweet — he is, after all, the author of “The Graveyard Book,” the tender children’s novel that opens with a nasty knife murder. Still, the 49-year-old Brit sounds dazed when he reflects on the past year of his life. “I had a really strange year,” the author said in a faraway voice. “I was leading up to the writing of an ‘Anansi Boys’ screenplay [based on my 2005 novel], which begins with an incredibly funny sequence where the protagonist’s father keels over from a surprise heart attack. And as I was doing that my father keeled over and died of a surprise heart attack. It’s not terribly funny though, is it?” The death of David Gaiman during a business meeting in March left his son searching for words. ...

  Brave enough to enter the other world? Come see a free screening of “Coraline” at 7:30 tonight at The Landmark at 10850 W. Pico Boulevard and then stick around for my interview with director Henry Selick up on stage. We’ll be taking questions from the audience as well, as this event that’s brought to you by the Los Angeles Times and The Envelope is the first of five screenings leading up to the Oscar voting. Hope to see you there. – Geoff Boucher Top photo by David Strick; photo of Neil Gaiman, below, by Kimberly Butler Neil Gaiman and the stuff that dreams are made of Neil Gaiman on the Hollywood future of “Sandman” Gaiman says Moore was the Beatles: “I was Gerry & Pacemakers” “Coraline”: Meet the cast Exclusive set photos: “Coraline” coming to life Henry Selick’s maquettes charm the Con