By Though known for likes of modern animation classics such as Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, production company Laika has announced plans to produce their first live-action film, adapting John Brownlow’s forthcoming novel Seventeen, a thriller set in the world of hitmen and killers, promising action and a “sincere heart” beneath it all.
Following a bid for rights to Brownlow’s novel, Laika came out on top, with CEO and filmmaker Travis Knight calling the studio one working “across mediums and genres,” the jump to live-action “an exciting new direction.” Knight previously directed Kubo and the Two Strings for Laika, as well as Transformers spin-off Bumblebee in 2018, so he’s no stranger to living, breathing sets. No director has been attached to Seventeen thus far, though Brownlow will be penning the script for the adaptation.
The studio is hard at work on their sixth feature following Missing Link in 2019, and with Brownlow’s novel not set to release until next year, Seventeen is likely a ways off. Not to mention the restrictions and complications of production under the pandemic. Still, signs of life at Laika are something to celebrate, for the studio has given us some of the most visually-dazzling and imaginative animated films of the century. I of course eagerly anticipate whatever stop-motion fare they’re currently concocting, but wait with bated breath for whatever Seventeen may entail.
Source: The Film Stage