Coraline Script

Director:Henry Selick

Written by:Neil Gaiman (Screenplay), Henry Selick (Screenplay), Chris Butler (Storyboard), Mike Cachuela (Storyboard), Graham Annable (Storyboard), Vera Brosgol (Storyboard)

Coraline Jones: I can see you don't have button eyes, but if you're not the same cat, how can you talk? Cat: I just can. Sweet Ghost Girl: Be clever Miss, even if you win, she'll never let you go. Coraline Script. Script by: Neil Gaiman (Screenplay), Henry Selick (Screenplay), Chris Butler (Storyboard), Mike Cachuela (Storyboard), Graham Annable (Storyboard), Vera Brosgol (Storyboard) Directed by: Henry Selick. IMDb: tt0327597. Plot: When Coraline moves to an old house, she feels bored and neglected by her parents.

The Film of the Book of Coraline, with Henry Selick (of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame) as director and writer. It was released on February 6, 2009 and it's the first Stop Motion movie filmed with a 3-D camera (however, the 3-D viewings were. Coraline's ability to compartmentalize and process these feelings demonstrates her emotional maturity and her understanding of the circumstances she is in. This coping mechanism is a great strength. Coraline is ultimately able to succeed because she keeps her feelings in check while she is under pressure. Coraline shuns her mother on the ride home, especially when Mel reveals that she locked the small door after finding rat excrement near it. Seeing that the fridge is nearly devoid of food, Mel offers to buy some groceries and asks Coraline to accompany her.

Script Synopsis:When Coraline moves to an old house, she feels bored and neglected by her parents. She finds a hidden door with a bricked up passage. During the night, she crosses the passage and finds a parallel world where everybody has buttons instead of eyes, with caring parents and all her dreams coming true. When the Other Mother invites Coraline to stay in her world forever, the girl refuses and finds that the alternate reality where she is trapped is only a trick to lure her.

Coraline Script Resources:

Coraline Script PDF at CineFile
Coraline Script at IMSDb
Coraline Script PDF - FOURTH DRAFT. 4/26/2006. at Script City ($)
Coraline Script PDF at Script Fly ($)
Coraline Transcript at Script-O-Rama

Note: Multiple links are listed since (a) different versions exist and (b) many scripts posted become unavailable over time. Please notify me if you encounter a stale link.

Coraline Script Wall Art

*4001 In the New Yorker, Dana Goodyear has a lengthy article about Neil Gaiman:

Coraline Shifting Script

'In addition to horror, he writes fantasy, fairy tales, science fiction, and apocalyptic romps, in the form of novels, comics, picture books, short stories, poems, and screenplays. Now and then, he writes a song.'
At the moment he's getting a lot of attention for 'Coraline,' the book on which the wonderful 3-D film was based, and his 2008 children's book, 'The Graveyard Book' (Kipling's 'The Jungle Book' retold set in a graveyard) debuted in the number one spot on the New York Times best-seller list and won the 2009 Newbery medal.
The article reveals that when Gaiman showed an early draft of 'Coraline' to an editor he was told it was too scary for children. Gaiman says adults find it scarier than kids--that could be true, I got the chills a couple of times watching the film.
Gaiman is very active on social media; the article says he uses Twitter sometimes a dozen or more times a day. 'He attributes his recent No. 1 débuts to his ability to communicate directly with his fans: he tells them to buy a book on a certain day, and they do.'

Coraline Script Movie

The article has a few interesting insights into his writing process. For instance, when he was writing the 'Sandman' series of comics:

'The whole is a chaotic collage, composed at the dizzying pace of one issue a month—a rate, Gaiman says, that forced him to access and transcribe his unconscious thoughts without much analysis. Many of the episodes reveal a vexed relationship to the idea of authorship. In “Calliope,” Richard Madoc, a blocked writer, makes a sex slave of the Muse. After he becomes rich and famous for his new work, Dream punishes him with a never-ending stream of ideas: 'A man who falls in love with a paper doll. . . . An old man in Sunderland who owned the universe, and who kept it in a jam-jar in the dusty cupboard under his stairs. . . . A sestina about silence using the key words dark, ragged, never, screaming, fire, kiss.'

PS: here's the site where you can get a free download of the 'Coraline' script as well as an interview with director Henry Sellick (see the black strip at the bottom of the page to find where to click to download the script): www.focusawards2009.com/#/coraline/craft

(Want to write your own book? Helpful guidance is available in my book, 'Your Writing Coach,' published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online and offline retailers around the world.)