A Nightmare Before Christmas' Director Is Taking On A Horror Video Game For TV

Little Nightmares

A recently released horror video game is heading to television, all thanks to the Russo Brothers, of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War fame, and A Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick. The famous Marvel twosome are collaborating with Selick and others to bring the Tarsier Studios and Bandai Namco video game Little Nightmares to the small screen. Here's what we know so far about this exciting project, and why fans of Jack Skellington should be excited.

Anthony and Joe Russo are developing and executive producing a television adaptation of the video game Little Nightmares, which follows a nine year old girl trapped on the bottom of a ship. Henry Selick is confirmed to be directing the pilot, and is likely involved in a couple more episodes. In addition to his work on The Nightmare Before Christmas, Selick has also worked on the similarly acclaimed and beloved James And The Giant Peach and Coraline. The Oscar nominated director's involvement with the project seems appropriate, as the art style for Little Nightmares is very much in the same vein as his stop-motion features. Unfortunately, it wasn't directly stated what visual format this project would take, although hiring Selick makes certain avenues of speculation easy to walk down..

Little Nightmares is a fairly current platforming game, with its release on major console platforms happening in late April, with a DLC update appearing in the past week or so. The main protagonist, Six, navigates her way through a ship full of bizarre characters, all while evading capture by the dreaded Janitor, who preys upon Six's appetite. Little Nightmares itself has received generally favorable reviews, with the atmosphere and concept of the game heralded as the high point, and all negative criticism falling on the length of the game itself. Shouldn't affect the TV show, though.

The two brothers are lending aid to Dmitri M. Johnson and Stephan Bugaj of DJ2 Entertainment, whose past experience includes adaptations of video games Sonic The Hedgehog and Life Is Strange. The Russo's involvement in the project was reportedly hotly contested, and apparently a lot of companies were looking to get involved with the adaptation. After viewing the trailer for the game, it isn't hard to see why so many were jumping to get involved in this project with Selick attached:

No release date for the Little Nightmares adaptation exists at this early point in development. The game joins Castlevania as the latest in video games that have a promising future in television. It isn't just video games having a great time in television, by the way, as there's a plethora of great content to be found on our summer premiere guide. Those already engrossed in television can visit our finale guide for dates regarding when they can expect to see their shows come to an end.

Mick Joest
Content Producer

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.