Laika, the maker of high-quality stop-motion animated motion pictures comparable to Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, has introduced its latest undertaking: an adaptation of Wildwood, the 2011 YA novel by Colin Meloy, singer/songwriter of the indie rock band the Decemberists, and illustrated by his spouse Carson Ellis. The movie will probably be directed by Travis Knight, president of Laika and the director of the wonderful Transformers spin-off Bumblebee.

I hadn’t heard of the guide earlier than this morning, however the official abstract sounds prefer it’s proper up Laika’s alley, which is to say a contemporary fairy story that’s simply darkish sufficient to supply some suspense: “Beyond Portland’s city limits lies Wildwood. You’re not supposed to go there. You’re not even supposed to know it exists. But Prue McKeel is about to enter this enchanted wonderland. Her baby brother Mac has been taken by a murder of crows into the forest’s depths, and she—along with her hapless classmate Curtis—is going to get him back. Prue might think she’s too old for fairytales, but she’s just found herself at the center of one. One filled with strange talking animals, roguish bandits, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions.”

Sounds like Laika to me, and the studio will need to have thought in order nicely as a result of Variety reviews that Laika really optioned the rights to Meloy and Ellis’ guide again in 2011, shortly after it was revealed. It’s taken the studio a full decade to lastly begin manufacturing on the stop-motion animated adaptation, however that actually simply goes to point out how a lot it has stayed within the undertaking throughout all these years. Knight can be a local of Oregon, and Wildwood is extraordinarily Portland-y, which additionally most likely helps. (According to Wikipedia, literary critic Anna Minard known as the characters “bespectacled, bike-riding, vinyl-browsing, Kurosawa-referencing children,” so, yeah.)

Wildwood was the primary of a trilogy, which was adopted by Under Wildwood in 2012 and Wildwood Imperium in 2015. If the film is successful, there could also be extra Wildwood on the best way.

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