Out of the left-field, Laika Studios is going into a darker genre of filmmaking, sharing the blood-filled first look at its upcoming The Night Gardner movie.
LAIKA partners with Ozark creator Bill Dubuque on new stop-motion animated movie THE NIGHT GARDENER. In Pre-Production.Ī gritty neo-noir folktale set in rural Missouri.
While Laika Studios has unfortunately been able to turn a profit on its recent films, the production company still stands out as one of the flagship animation studios in the world.įor a turn of events, Laika gives the first look at its upcoming film, The Night Gardener, a “gritty neo-noir folktale”:Ī gritty neo-noir folktale set in rural Missouri. Laika is single-handily keeping the stop-motion animation world alive with other breakthrough movies such as Paranorman (2012), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), and Golden Globe winner Missing Link (2019). In order to stay in the fantasy, she must make a frighteningly real sacrifice. Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, Coraline (Dakota Fanning) discovers a hidden door to a fantasy version of her life. Laika Studios shocked the cinematic world with its groundbreaking Coraline (2009), the $60 million stop-motion animation that terrified every child with its horrifying themes with “Other Mother” (Teri Hatcher) but knocked the socks off of critics and the box office, grossing over $125 million. Like the beloved Laika Studios, others go down a dark path that no one expected. In March 2015, the company announced it would expand the studio in an effort to allow for production of one film per year.The world of animation is changing forever, with various studios shutting down their departments entirely. Laika has also optioned Colin Meloy's fantasy novel Wildwood and Philip Reeve's fantasy book Goblins, as upcoming feature film adaptations. It was directed by Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable and received an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature nomination as well. Their third film, The Boxtrolls was released on Septemand was based on Alan Snow's fantasy-adventure novel, Here Be Monsters!. The new independent commercial division is now called House Special. After working on stop-motion commercials for clients such as Apple Inc., Fox Sports, ESPN and Coca-Cola, Laika spun off its advertising portion in July 2014, to focus on feature film production exclusively. Their second stop-motion feature film, ParaNorman opened August 17, 2012, which also received an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature nomination. At the end of the year, the studio laid off more staff in its computer animation department to focus exclusively on stop-motion. After directing Moongirl and Coraline, and unsuccessfully renegotiating his contract, Selick departed Laika in 2009. The following year, the studio released its first feature film, Coraline, which received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The studio laid off a significant portion of its staff in 2008, when its second planned feature Jack & Ben's Animated Adventure was cancelled. They also announced their first projects, a stop-motion film Coraline and CGI animated film Jack & Ben’s Animated Adventure.
In July 2005, the successor to Will Vinton Studios, Laika, was founded and opened two divisions: Laika Entertainment for feature films and Laika/house for commercial work, such as advertisements and music videos. The following year, Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, joined the studio as a supervising director. In 2002, Phil Knight acquired financially struggling Will Vinton Studios to pursue feature-length productions. In 1998, Knight made his initial investment and son Travis started work at the studio as an animator. In the late 1990s, Will Vinton Studios, known for its stop-motion films and commercials, sought funds for more feature-length films and brought in outside investors, which included Nike, Inc.