Laika announced today they are teaming up with “Ozark” co-creator, Bill Dubuque, to bring a new stop-motion animated feature, “The Night Gardener” to the screen. Laika’s CEO, Travis Knight, will be directing.
The film is based on Dubuque’s original idea and is described as a gritty neo-noir folktale centered on a young man in rural Missouri, who’s fighting to keep his family together in the wake of a tragedy.
“The Night Gardener is a beautiful and timeless story that quickens the pulse as often as it breaks the heart,” Knight said in a statement. “Bill is a masterful storyteller. He’s crafted a lyrical world layered with complex characters, provocative ideas, and keenly felt emotion. It’s gonna be one helluva movie.”
“I’m delighted that Travis Knight saw in The Night Gardener a story worthy of the time-intensive process and collective talent of LAIKA’s in-house artisans,” Dubuque said. “LAIKA’s creativity and dedication to detail are, in my opinion, as close as one can come to conjuring storytelling magic.”
Laika has produced five animated features and is currently working on its sixth, “Wildwood” (based on the fantasy novel written by Colin Meloy— singer and songwriter for The Decemberists). “The Night Gardener” will make the seventh #OregonMade stop-motion feature, and also on the Laika slate is the first live-action film based on John Brownlow’s upcoming debut novel, “Seventeen.”
