Twenty-five years ago, it was hardly a sure thing that Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas would go on to become a cultural touchstone and earn $50 million in its initial run. When cameras began rolling on the film in summer 1991, stop-motion director Henry Selick and his crew faced a nerve-wracking obstacle that could trip up even the most seasoned of filmmakers: no screenplay.
“We had to start production without a script, which is insane,” Selick tells The Hollywood Reporter about the movie, which was released 25 years ago this month. “We didn’t really know what we were doing, but we had total confidence and we had a huge amount of fun."
Guided by producer Tim Burton’s mad-genius vision and composer Danny Elfman’s whimsical, original songs as a roadmap, Selick assembled a trusted, tight-knit team of experienced character designers, animators, miniature set builders, puppet fabricators/costumers and intensely creative minds.
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