Henry Selick, director of Wendell & Wild, discussed the film’s challenging production. The stop-motion puppets used in the film had to be rescued from wildfires in Oregon. While on location for Wendell & Wild, Alyse Wax spoke to director Henry Selick about his career so far and his plans for the future, as well as learned some mysteries about his first picture since Coraline. Selick became a star in the field of stop-motion animation after directing such beloved films as Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas, & James and the Giant Peach. It’s been a long since we’ve seen a Selick film, so everyone here is looking forward to October’s release of Wendell & Wild on Netflix with great anticipation.
However, the film is being released much later than Selick had originally planned because of the destructive Oregon wildfires of 2020, which necessitated the production team to organise a puppet rescue. In Selick’s telling, To paraphrase, “We have gone through the wringer in terms of disruptions. Unfortunately, there were forest fires. In Oregon, people experienced flames unlike any they had seen before. The studio was in real danger. A rescue operation for the puppets was essential. When the smoke got too close, we were loaded into cars and evacuated; the studio’s sets could be reconstructed, but the puppets would be lost forever. Quite a lot of effort is required for it.
We experienced the Heat Dome, an event that occurs once every thousand years. Portland, Oregon, was the hottest city on the planet. A street vehicle collapsed and the plastic surrounding some of the cables melted; it felt like we went through a lot for those few days (116 or 120). With the loss of property in the wildfires, Selick was worried that Netflix wouldn’t be able to afford to produce the film. Though the Oregon fires were eventually contained, the animation studio’s closure due of the COVID pandemic extended that worry until the year 2020.
However, as Selick stresses, the streaming platform was quite supportive. Using Selick’s words: “We were like, ‘Oh, man, the movie’s going to end now. Oh, right, Netflix is pausing the film right about now. However, they never abandoned us and have instead always shown their support. Then, when COVID forced us to down the studio, they continued to pay all of us even though we were unable to perform our regular duties from home. They were prepared to pay the extra money to keep the crew together. So, we discovered an incredible dedication to us. Moreover, the film. It pushed back the timeline by at least a year and a half.
Wendell & Wild, starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, is based on an unpublished book by Selick and Clay McLeod Chapman about two demon brothers who recruit a goth girl (Lyric Ross, 13) to help them escape Hell and attack the Real World. Selick co-wrote the script with acclaimed horror filmmaker Jordan Peele. On September 11, the international premiere of Wendell & Wild will take place at the 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival. After that, the animated movie will release on Netflix in October, just in time for Halloween.