Filmmaker Travis Knight’s LAIKA, the studio behind Academy Award-nominated animated films such as Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link, is expanding into live-action with Seventeen, after securing the rights in an intense bidding war on Wednesday. The project is based on the upcoming novel by acclaimed screenwriter John Brownlow (The Minaturist, Sylvia).
“For the past 15 years, LAIKA has been committed to making movies that matter,” says Knight, LAIKA President & CEO. “Across mediums and genres, our studio has fused art, craft, and technology in service of bold, distinctive, and enduring stories. With Seventeen, LAIKA is taking that philosophy in an exciting new direction.”
“Seventeen is a stiff cocktail of wicked wit, exhilarating action, and raw emotion,” Knight continues. “John has such a wonderfully unique voice. He’s crafted a brilliant universe with its own powerful identity. Seventeen is a thriller with soul, a sinuous adrenaline-fueled actioner with a sincere heart beating underneath its rippling pectorals.”
Author and screenwriter John Brownlow is well known for his film and television credits. He is the screenwriter of the feature film Gwyneth Paltrow starrer, Sylvia, penned and exec produced three-part BBC limited series The Minaturist, which starred Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit), and also wrote the four-episode limited series Fleming, which starred Dominic Cooper as James Bond author Ian Fleming.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be developing Seventeen for the screen with LAIKA,” says Brownlow. “As a long-time fan of LAIKA’s movies for their vision, heart, craft, intelligence and ambition, I couldn’t have hoped for the novel or the universe it inhabits to have found a better or more exciting home. I’m beyond honored to be part of their plans for the future.”
UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton has preemptively acquired worldwide publishing rights to Seventeen. Hanover Square will publish the book in the US in 2022.
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Native New Yorker. Lover of all things pizza, chocolate, pets, and good friends. Karaoke hero. Left of center. Survivor. Fond supporter of cult, obscure and independent cinema - especially fond of Asian movies and global action cinema. Author of the bi-weekly Hit List. Founder and editor of Film Combat Syndicate. Still, very much, only human.
