
Review: “The meticulously crafted world is stunning to behold, imagined to the minutest detail and photographed with the sort of dramatic lighting and dynamic camera movement rarely seen in stop-motion. Major Awards: Nominated for Oscar Annie Awards for character animation, character design.ĭirectors: Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable Review: “Few movies so taken with death have felt so rudely alive as ‘ParaNorman.’ … Evinces a sly, sophisticated wit and an easy familiarity with the sort of old-school creature-features that once defined the reputation of Focus’ parent studio, Universal.”
#Laika films produced movie#
Major Awards: Nominated for Oscar AFI Movie of the Year Annie Awards for character design, music and production design … This eccentric and deliriously inventive fantasy finds stop-motion auteur Henry Selick scaling new heights of ghoulish whimsy.” Review: “Eerily inhabiting the netherworld where a young girl’s wildest dreams become her cruelest nightmares, “Coraline” is a dark delight.
#Laika films produced full#
Within a safe environment, the theater, you can have a big ride, big ups and downs, intensity, warmth, humanity, laughs, tears - you want that full range of emotion.” Laika Films by the Numbers: It means warmth, but it also potentially means scares. “Rather than a taste for the macabre,” he says, “I like the full range of human emotion in a story, which means darkness and light. Knight says the company’s future titles - not yet announced - will prove the company is serious about branching out, not sticking to macabre, quirky stories. He adds that Focus, whose mandate now includes wide releases, is prepared to handle a potential blockbuster should Laika deliver one. Laika has presented concepts it’s developing and invited Focus’s feedback, “but ultimately, like any great filmmaker, they have to feel it’s a story they want to tell, and they can tell it extremely well,” says Schlessel. “Of course if there’s any big name talent associated we’ll always listen, but not in a way that we compromise the integrity of the stories,” Fried says.įocus recently renewed its distribution deal with Laika for three more pictures, starting with “Kubo and the Two Strings.” Focus CEO Peter Schlessel says his marketing, publicity and distribution departments see the early Laika scripts and get peeks at footage, but Knight has final say. Laika doesn’t have a large corporate governance structure, he notes, and it doesn’t take a lot of input from stars or marketing. Laika is looking at a wide range of genres going forward, from high-concept comedies to Westerns to heist movies, he says.įried says while Laika listens to notes from Focus Features, its distributor, its development process is more protected than those of some other studios. Laika, whose five films (Missing Link, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Boxtrolls, ParaNorman and Coraline) have all received Oscar nominations for Best Animated Film, will partner with the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry for multiple screenings of all its films as well as filmmaker discussions and a display of puppets and sets this October. He says part of his brief from president and CEO Travis Knight was: “Build out the richest and most diverse slate that we possibly can, so that we don’t get pigeonholed as a studio that makes those dark, creepy, little esoteric films.” Brownlow is represented by George Davis at Nelson Davis, Jessica Sykes at Independent Talent Group and CAA.“Absolutely,” says Matt Fried, Laika’s executive director, acquisitions and development. Laika was represented in the deal by CAA. Hanover Square will publish the book in the U.S.

publisher Hodder & Stoughton has preemptively acquired worldwide publishing rights to Seventeen. Laika is currently in production on its sixth animated feature, whose title hasn’t yet been announced.

Knight himself made his directorial debut with Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), followed by his first live-action movie, 2018’s Bumblebee, which he helmed for Paramount. Said Brownlow in a released statement, “as a longtime fan of Laika’s movies for their vision, heart, craft, intelligence and ambition, I couldn’t have hoped for the novel or the universe it inhabits to have found a better or more exciting home.” He went on to describe Seventeen as “a thriller with soul, a sinuous adrenaline-fueled actioner with a sincere heart beating underneath its rippling pectorals.” With Seventeen, Laika is taking that philosophy in an exciting new direction.” “Across mediums and genres, our studio has fused art, craft and technology in service of bold, distinctive and enduring stories. “For the past 15 years, Laika has been committed to making movies that matter,” Laika president and CEO Travis Knight said in a released statement. Laika To Produce 'The Night Gardener,' Directed by Travis Knight
