Laika Entertainment has optioned the rights to Alan Snow's best-selling British children's novel "Here Be Monsters" for its next animated feature, to be overseen by Henry Selick. "Monsters" was purchased for an undisclosed six-figure sum by Laika after the animation boutique successfully outbid competing international studios for film rights to the book. Selick, who directed the 1993 animated hit "The Nightmare Before Christmas," is in preproduction on the animated feature film "Coraline," whose title character is being voiced by Dakota Fanning.

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