Filmmaker Ron Howard is in talks to direct a live-action adaptation of The Graveyard Book for Walt Disney Pictures and producer Gil Netter. The project was initially slated as a stop-motion project, with Coraline director Henry Selick at the helm.

The story is based on Neil Gaiman's award-winning novel that puts a genre spin on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. The plot centers on a young boy named Nobody Owens, who is raised by the ghosts in a cemetery after his family is murdered. As a teenager, the boy becomes pursued by an entity known as "The Man Jack," which killed his parents. Published in 2008, the book made history by becoming the first and only title to win both the Carnegie and Newberry medals.

Ron Howard will oversee the writing of a new screenplay. The filmmaker may also produce with his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer. No production schedule was given.