While on the road to promote the release of Coraline, the animated adaptation of his novella of the same name, Neil Gaiman announced this morning that his latest novel, The Graveyard Book, will also be making its way onto the big screen. Another Neil, Oscar winning writer/director Neil Jordan, will be at the helm.
Although Jordan is best known for a gritty and somewhat dark realism in movies such as The Crying Game, Mona Lisa and Michael Collins, he is no stranger to fantasy. One of his very earliest ventures into film was the darkly atmospheric A Company of Wolves, followed a decade later by the very successful Interview with a Vampire (well, it made a lot of money anyway).
His latest venture, which he scripted and directed, is another fantasy. Ondine, starring Colin Farrell and with relative newcomer Alicja Bachleda in the title role, is the story of a mythical sea nymph caught in the net of a fisherman (Farrell), and her effect on the the lives of the people in his Irish town. Given the rather grim scenario for Gaiman’s latest fantasy-horror about Nobody Owens, a young boy who survives the brutal murder of his family and is raised by ghosts in the local graveyard, Jordan’s gritty realism and fantastical sensibility might just be ideal.
Incidentally, on Monday The Graveyard Book was awarded the prestigious John Newberry Medal for the year’s most outstanding contribution to children’s literature in recognition of its “delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humour and human longing.” It is, the judges felt, a tale told, "in magical, haunting prose".
Gaiman was apparently stunned by the award, which has rarely been received in recent times by novels that have already found a popular audience. Gaiman told the New York Times that he'd thought that fact was in itself "nice", and that "there are books that are best sellers and books that are winners. Very often ... award judges, and I think rightly, use their magical judging powers to try to bring books to the attention of the world that might not have otherwise been noticed.”
To which one can only say, congratulations Neil! Once again you've demonstrated that commercial success and literary merit are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Coraline is scheduled to be released in theatres on 6 February 2009. Currently in post-production, Ondine has a scheduled 2009 release.
Read our review of The Graveyard Book.
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