Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings film studio Laika is working on a stop-motion adaptation of Colin Meloy’s young-adult, fantasy novel, Wildwood. Meloy is also the lead singer for the rock band, The Decemberists.
SlashFilm reported Travis McKnight, Laika’s president and chief executive officer, is onboard to direct the movie, which is about young Prue, who enters a mysterious, magical wonderland filled with talking animals in an effort to rescue her baby brother, Mac. Along for the ride to the place beyond the Portland city limits is Prue’s classmate, Curtis.
Chris Butler — whose credits include Laika’s Missing Link — is writing the screenplay, but no voice cast or release date have been announced yet.
“As a deep-dyed native son of Oregon, I have rainwater, microbrew, and fair-trade coffee coursing through my veins,” said Knight in a statement, according to Deadline. “With Wildwood, I have the opportunity to tell a madly ambitious story of magic, wonder, and danger set in the place I grew up,” he added. “My very own Portland will join that pantheon of unforgettable fantasy realms, with a stirring epic that will kindle imaginations, lift spirits, and break hearts.”
Six-time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel will serve as cinematographer on the project. This will be his first attempt at stop-motion animation.
“I’m always looking to doing something I’ve never done before,” Deschanel said in an email to IndieWire. “Which means working on a project where I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. I filmed Never Look Away in German, which I do not speak — and photographed Lion King in a virtual world I knew nothing about. Wildwood will be filmed with stop-motion animation which is actually one of the oldest forms of animation, but utilizing some of the newest technology to make it that much more expressive. Once again, I have no idea what I am doing. But, honestly, I am really just overseeing some amazingly talented people who have done this many times before.
I’m learning from them. It’s an exciting process — fascinating.”
Laika’s other films include ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls.