A while back it was looking like Wes Anderson’s next project was going to be an animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book Fantastic Mr. Fox. He had co-written the screenplay with Noah Baumbach (director of The Squid and the Whale, co-writer on The Life Aquatic), and they had lined up stop motion guru Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) to do the animation work on it. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way Selick left the project to work on Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, Revolution Studios went under and then Wes Anderson went on his merry way, moving on to his next project The Darjeeling Limited.

Well now it looks like Fantastic Mr. Fox may still see the light of day. Variety reports that the film has been picked up by Fox Animation, who plan to tell the story through a combination of animation styles (but still primarily stop motion). Scott Rudin (The Life Aquatic, I Heart Huckabees) will co-produce the film. No word yet on whether or not early casting rumours about Anjelica Huston or Jason Schwartzman will still hold true. I’m a big fan of Wes Anderson but I’m dying for him to try something new. This could be just the right project for him to branch out with, so I’m glad to hear this it’s back on track for the time being.

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