Henry Selick wants Nightmare Before Christmas prequel

Henry Selick is interested in making a 'Nightmare Before Christmas' prequel.

The 70-year-old director helmed the classic 1993 stop-motion animated festive flick, which was conceived by Tim Burton, and though he insisted a sequel to the film is unlikely to happen, he likes the idea of exploring Jack Skellington's back story.

He told People magazine: "['Nightmare...'] is a perfect movie [that] came out of the perfect time, only to grow into something far bigger over the years."

"I think Tim in particular feels like, why mess with that?

"He certainly doesn't need to make more money from a sequel. He has had so many other successes, and so far nobody's come up with a great idea for a sequel.

"And I still think that Tim gets to decide. I don't think there's any idea that would convince him.

That being said, "It might be more interesting to do a prequel. There might be a more interesting story there about how Jack became the King of Halloweentown."

And if a prequel came about, Chris Sarandon, who provided Jack's speaking voice, would "absolutely" be on board.

He said: "To quote Henry, 'F*** yeah.' If there were a sequel, I'd be there in a minute."

Henry previously revealed he and Tim weren't on board for a sequel because Disney would want them to use computer-generated animation.

He told Collider: "(A) sequel has come up several times. Initially, (Disney) always said, 'But it will have to be CG'. And that was a non-starter for me. It certainly was for Tim Burton."

The 'Coraline' filmmaker did suggest that both he and Tim would be open to making a short film based on 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'.

Selick said: "The idea of a short has never come up in the past. I think Tim might be open to a short. It would have to be so refreshing... such a new take to justify making a sequel, but a short makes good sense."