Skellington Productions renamed the studio to Selick Projects. In September 1992, Tim Burton returned to Selick's studio, renamed it Skellington Productions, and sold it to Disney. The first film produced by Skellington Productions (which gave the company its namesake), "The Nightmare Before Christmas", was released theatrically in 1993 under Disney's Touchstone Pictures banner to a positive reception and a successful box office, becoming a sleeper hit. Since 2006, "Nightmare" has been released by Walt Disney Pictures and in Disney Digital 3-D format. The second and final film, "James and the Giant Peach", released to theaters in 1996. It was met with positive
Tim Burton Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy, as well as the award for Best Villain as Todd in the 2008 MTV Awards. In 2005, filmmaker Shane Acker released his short film "9", a story about a sentient rag doll living in a post-apocalyptic world who tries to stop machines from destroying the rest of his eight fellow rag dolls. The film won numerous awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. After seeing the short film, Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, director of "Wanted", showed interest in producing a feature-length adaptation of the film. Directed