MirrorMask.

"The brief with Mirrormask was Henson coming to us and saying, in the Eighties, Henson's did The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. They were family fantasy films. They cost $40 million each. We'd like to do another one. We have $4 million. If we gave you that $4 million, could you come back with a movie, and we won't tell you what to do? As deals go, it's that bit at the end that said, we won't tell you what to do that was, okay, yes, I will happily take not enough money to make a huge fantasy movie and try and make a huge fantasy movie with it." -- Neil Gaiman, TIME interview (with Joss Whedon, actually).

Helena is the 15-year-old daughter of a family of circus entertainers, who wishes she could run off and join real life. After a fight with her parents, her mother falls dangerously ill and she blames herself for it. She dreams herself into a strange, doomed land with opposing queens, bizarre creatures and masked inhabitants, and only she can restore the balance by finding the MirrorMask.

I've adored Gaiman's writing since his run on Sandman, and the trailer is proof enough that artist/director Dave McKean has come up with some amazing visuals.

It's playing in in Seattle only at the Varsity Theatre, in a limited engagement that ends Thursday.


This Tuesday, the 11th, I'm going to be at the 9:20 showing. And so are you.