For now, Laika remains to be identified for its stop-motion animated options comparable to “Kubo and the Two Strings,” “ParaNorman,” and “Coraline.” However which will quickly change. The corporate has been steadily growing a slate of live-action options to enrich its animated motion pictures, and its newest could also be among the many most excessive profile it has introduced.
Laika has tapped “The Farewell” and “Expats” director Lulu Wang to direct a function adaptation of “Audition,” the e book from writer Katie Kitamura launched this yr that was a finalist on the longlist for the Booker Prize. Already the studio has nabbed two large stars to steer the mission, Lucy Liu and Charles Melton, and a producer who’s as large of a fan as you may get, Barack Obama on behalf of his Larger Floor banner.
“Audition” is a twisty thriller that follows a celebrated actress having fun with a charmed, bohemian life in Manhattan together with her artistic husband. That’s till a mysterious younger man seems, claiming to be her long-lost son. What begins as a misguided reunion spirals into an enthralling thriller about id, guilt, and the roles we carry out. Martyna Majok, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, is co-writing the variation with Wang.
Obama included “Audition” in his annual summer time studying checklist for 2025, calling it a “quiet novel in regards to the methods we cover our true selves from others — and ourselves.” Excessive reward.
For Wang, that is simply her second function after “The Farewell,” having created and directed the Amazon Prime Video restricted sequence “Expats.” Whereas “The Farewell” was on authentic story, with “Expats,” she actually confirmed her talent at directing an adaptation — in that case of Janice Y.Okay. Lee’s novel “The Expatriates.”
“Bringing Katie Kitamura’s ‘Audition’ to the display is an exhilarating problem,” Wang mentioned in a press release. “What makes it really feel potential, and electrifying, is working with Lucy Liu and Charles Melton. They’re each such magnetic performers and I can’t think about higher collaborators to step into this story with.”
Laika has quite a lot of live-action tasks in growth, however only some have been introduced up to now. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s subsequent movie is for Laika and is an adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new novel “Ambiance.” “Dune” author Jon Spaihts has an authentic film that was the primary mission introduced by the studio. There’s an adaptation of the motion thriller novel “Seventeen” in growth that screenwriter John Brownlow is adapting. And Brian Duffield (“Spontaneous”) is writing and directing an authentic script known as “Crumble” that has Phil Lord and Chris Miller connected as producers.
Laika remains to be engaged on its animated options which might be its bread and butter and, as IndieWire reported, is engaged on re-introducing itself to audiences after a field workplace misfire with its final mission “Lacking Hyperlink.” The corporate’s sixth animated function, “Wildwood,” is within the works now and directed by Travis Knight, who himself can also be juggling the live-action “Masters of the Universe” movie for Amazon MGM.
Larger Floor and LAIKA will produce “Audition” in affiliation with Wang’s manufacturing firm Native Time. Larger Floor’s Vinnie Malhotra and Anikah McLaren, LAIKA’s Travis Knight and Matt Levin, and Lulu Wang are producers. Lucy Liu, LAIKA’s Jeremy Kipp Walker and writer Katie Kitamura are government producers.