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Deadline updated their original story with this news, so I’m updating here as well. Apparently they’ve signed Coraline director Henry Selick to direct. Resume happy dancing!

According to Deadline Hollywood, Disney has just paid a ton of money to make an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. As an avid reader of Gaiman, I can tell you that this book is pure awesome sauce.

It’s a twisted take on The Jungle Book where an orphaned boy is raised by a rowdy pack of ghosts in a graveyard, and while it sounds like a horror story, it’s actually not that scary once you get past the boy’s origins. It’s incredibly sweet and is a beautiful way to introduce children to the concept of death. As a parent, I’m glad that there are authors like Gaiman willing to take a risk and trust that kids are smarter than the world tends to give them credit for.

Hopefully Disney retains this spirit as well…

[Deadline Hollywood]