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 role, Burton chose to cast Michael Keaton as Batman following their previous collaboration in "Beetlejuice", despite Keaton's average physique, inexperience with action films, and reputation as a comic actor. Although Burton won in the end, the furor over the casting provoked enormous fan animosity, to the extent that Warner Brothers' share price slumped. Burton had considered it ridiculous to cast a "bulked-up" ultra-masculine man as Batman, insisting that Batman should be an ordinary man who dressed up in an elaborate bat costume to frighten criminals. Burton cast Jack Nicholson as The Joker (Tim Curry being his second choice) in a