ASHLAND — Director Henry Selick says he had Ashland in mind when he moved the setting of the new animated adventure “Coraline” from Britain.

The movie produced by Laika Entertainment, owned by Nike co-founder Phil Knight, had its premiere Thursday night in Portland and is opening widely this weekend, including in Ashland, home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

“I could have set it anywhere in the world. But no, I set it here,” Selick said in a press release.

For one thing, he said, Coraline’s next-door neighbors in the book by Neil Gaiman are Miss Forcible and Miss Spink, two Shakespearean actresses.

“When I wrote the screenplay, I chose Oregon because I wanted to keep some of the characters British. There is a Shakespeare festival in Ashland,” Selick said.

And, he said, a character new for the movie, Coraline’s nosy next-door neighbor, Wybie, “is based on some of the youth culture in Ashland. He has his own self-made bike. He is at one with nature. But he is also a little bit of a hipster.”