Focus Features has re-set the release for A Monster Calls — the cinematic adaptation of Patrick Ness's coming-of-age graphic novel — for a limited run on Dec. 23. It will go wide to 1,500 ...

Constructing the ominous tree creature that helps 12-year-old Conor (Lewis MacDougall) cope while his mother (Felicity Jones) battles an illness in A Monster Calls was an exercise in patience.